


Personality Crisis 2 - More than Machines

by DoomFox



Series: The Furminator [2]
Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Science Fiction, Sonic and Tails are brothers, Tails is a robot, and a major character death at the very beginning, and a very sad boi, roboticization, some body horror, unsure how much more to tag, will prob add more tags as the story progresses
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:08:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 33,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26358484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoomFox/pseuds/DoomFox
Summary: Struggling to live with his mechanical nature, Miles 'Tails' Prower takes a chance at returning to a normal life and goes on a date with a girl he likes.However, his own guilt at his true identity as a life-imitating machine may betray him, and lead him to dark places that will change his life forever...
Series: The Furminator [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1916743
Comments: 9
Kudos: 39





	1. Just a Machine

**Author's Note:**

> This work is a sequel to my Personality Crisis fic, which details Tails' struggles with learning he is really a machine designed to perfectly imitate organic life. I've actually got to work on this a lot sooner than I thought I would, but when you gotta write you gotta write.
> 
> I have another full storyline planned out in my head, that might go unexpected places... but all I'll say is Robotnik definitely has an evil plan in mind! And it's gonna be up to Tails and his friends to stop him...
> 
> As always, this cherry picks from different areas of Sonic canon, but basically takes place on a Mobius inhabited by both Humans and Mobians, with Mobian Territories and Human Territories governed largely by the GUN.

The orange and white fox grinned, wiping sweat and grease from his forehead as he slid out from beneath the frame of a gleaming red biplane. He set his hands on his hips as he stood, proudly observing his work. The plane was in perfect condition, restored to its pristine state after battling the forces of Doctor Robotnik.

Miles Prower sratched at an ear. 'Tails'. That's what Sonic had taken to calling him, since the eight year old fox had revealed he had two of the limbs. The fox had been unsure of the nickname at first... but it appeared to have stuck. He'd been extremely reluctant to display his mutation, keeping the limbs wound up and fluffed to form the appearance of a single large bushy appendage, but after demonstrating his ability to fly using the things, Sonic had been astounded, and actively encouraged his new friend to exercise his unique abilities.

And so 'Tails' had. Gleefully. With Sonic's own powers of super speed and acrobatics, they made an awesome team. And more than that... Sonic had effectively taken in the fox cub, allowing him to stay at his place indefinitely. The super powered blue hedgehog felt... like the older brother Miles never had. The only _family_ he had.

He still couldn't remember much about his own parents. He didn't remember much about his life before meeting Sonic, to be quite honest. Just images and... feelings. Maybe that was for the best; he didn't remember being happy.

 _"Tails!"_ the fox's ears perked and swivelled, as the chipper tone of the fifteen year old hedgehog called from the workshop entrance, _"I'm grabbing a soda! You want one?"_

Tails grinned at the blue figure silhouetted in the open double doors, sun brightly shining from outside. "Sure thing, Sonic!"

It was then the fox noticed a hissing sound. He turned his attention back to the plane. An electrical smell emanated from the aircraft.

He should have been careful. Should have got his stupid fuzzy butt out of there. Instead, Miles stepped forward, retrieving a wrench from his tool pouch, intent on fixing the problem.

The plane's batteries exploded in his face, flinging him back against the workshop wall like a burning orange rag doll.

"TAILS!!!" Sonic, briefly shielding his eyes from the detonation, dashed toward the fallen form of his friend. "Oh my god!!!"

The blue hedgehog rushed to a kneel beside the burned figure. Horror clenched his chest as he recognized singed flesh... the _smell_ of burned meat.

"Oh god, no..." Sonic wept as he noted the utter lack of movement, the sight of bone visible beneath the cauterized skin and burned fur, "Tails..."

He trailed off as he realised. 

That wasn't bone.

Before he could react further, there was a groan. Slowly, groggily, the fox raised his tattered form into a sitting position... and the hedgehog tumbled back in horror as glowing blue eyes glared at him from a now fleshless face.

"What..." The hedgehog stammered in terror, "What ARE YOU?!"

Tails whimpered as he stared down at his ruined body, the flesh of his entire upper torso and forearms utterly burned away... revealing scorched metal beneath. Steel claws flexed. He tried to screw his eyes shut to block out the sight. Couldn't. No eyelids.

 _"S... Sonic..."_ the machine staggered like a zombie as it stood, scraps of roasted flesh still clinging to its exposed steel frame, _"Help... me..."_

Sonic just stared in disgust, jabbing a gloved finger toward the 'fox'. Tails' blood stained the white fabric. "I... trusted you!! And you're a freaking _robot?!_ "

Tails' vision flickered. His single remaining ear, burned free of fur, drooped. He didn't even hurt, couldn't feel anything.

 _"I... didn't know..."_ His voice reverberated artificially, mouthparts now free of flesh, _"I... I..."_

Then something clicked in the back of his mind. The machine cocked its head as it observed the hedgehog before it, everything suddenly clear. It knew what it had to do.

 _"Identity compromised._ " the artificial voice of Miles Prower announced between the lipless teeth, flat and monotone. The eyes now glowed a fierce red. _"Executing secondary objectives."_

Sonic stepped back, nausea clamming his throat at the sight of the machine's roasted synthetic flesh, the bare mechanical exoskeleton beneath glaring at him with furious red eyes. It gripped a wrench in one hand and, faster than Sonic had expected, lunged at him with the assistance of its rapidly spinning twin tails.

Sonic fought back, as best he could, but the machine was too quick even for him. He was unprepared as his sudden foe delivered a powerful back hand to his face, stars exploding in the hedgehog's vision and teeth breaking... and then a horrific pain shot through his abdomen.

Sonic looked down, swaying on his feet, as from his chest... the wrench stuck from where his heart lay, utterly impaled through his blue torso.

Blood dribbled from his mouth as he went cold, the pitiless eyes of his killer staring at him blankly.

"T... Tails?" the hedgehog could only mutter weakly. The machine cocked its head at the name.

_" 'Tails'. Prower, Miles. Alternative designation of Robotnik Infiltration Unit Alpha. Zero. One."_

The hedgehog offered no further reply, the light fading from his eyes as he finally slumped to the floor. Blood spread out from his rapidly cooling form.

'Tails' looked down at the dead hedgehog, and filed its mission objective away as complete. Internal systems now fully reactivated, it opened a channel back to its creator at a thought.

 _"Doctor..."_ Tails spoke mechanically, once again returned to an emotionless machine, _"Mission update; false identity compromised. The objective was present, and has thus been neutralised."_

_"Are you kidding?!"_ The doctor's voice responded in the infiltrator's head, _"We were supposed to capture him, not kill him!!"_

Tails remained still, like a statue as blood pooled around its feet. _"Identity was compromised."_ it repeated, _"This unit operated in the interest of operational longevity."_

_"Well, at least that's one less pesky rodent to deal with..."_ the doctor muttered over the channel, _"Very well, Alpha. Return to the collection point and await retrieval. We will undergo a full debriefing upon your return to base."_

_"Understood. Will comply."_

With that, the infiltration unit registered to the doctor as RIU-A01, alternate designation of Miles 'Tails' Prower, stepped over the body of the hedgehog who had taken it in, and left the workshop. Mission complete, it didn't even look back. 

_"Tails? TAILS?!"_

__................................................…_ _

__Tails' ears perked as he was snapped from his morbid daydream, the decidedly not-terminated face of his blue brother situated over the table before him._ _

__"Daydreaming again, buddy?" Sonic grinned, snapping his fingers to get the fox's attention._ _

__Tails nodded grimly. "Uh-huh..."_ _

__"Well, do you want something to eat or not? I've asked you, like, ten times already!"_ _

__Tails shrugged. "You know I don't need food, right? I don't even know why you brought me here."_ _

__Sonic gestured around the brand new fast-food joint that had opened just yesterday in the town. "Because this place is new, and I wanna stuff my face with junk!" The hedgehog raised an eyebrow and looked pointedly to his orange brother. "Plus, you've been stuck in that workshop of yours for nearly two weeks... do you some good to get out once in a while!"_ _

__"How long have you gone without food this time?" Amy Rose, their pink-furred companion, adjusted her sunglasses and raised an eyebrow at her orange friend._ _

__Tails went blank for a moment, before shrugging. "eight days, thirteen hours, forty-seven minutes sixteen seconds."_ _

Sonic and Amy shared a concerned glance at the response, noting Tails' less than cheerful disposition. Something, it seemed, was bothering him.

"So... how about we get you something?" Amy leaned over and rubbed his hand, causing orange ears to perk slightly, "Might make you feel better?"

"Yeah!" Sonic added, "Plus, y'know, we're in public and all... might look weird if you don't join us!"

Tails huffed. "Sure... wouldn't wanna blow my cover, huh?"

Sonic's spines drooped at his brother's tone. "That's... not what I meant, little buddy..."

"Right, that's it..." Amy shoved her chair back and began to march for the counter, "I'm ordering food. Tails, you're having something deep-fried and very unhealthy and you're gonna enjoy it if it kills me."

"Chilidogs for me, Ames!" Sonic called after her.

"I _know,_ Sonic..."

Tails remained slumped in his seat as, around their table, other customers sat and chatted while hot food steamed on the tables. In the street outside the windows pedestrians, mostly Mobians with the occasional human and city service bot, went by on their business. Just another day. His fur bristled. He didn't need to look to know Sonic was eyeing him with concern.

"So..." the hedgehog said, rocking in his seat, "Everything okay, dude? Something bothering you?"

"No..." Tails snapped back, too quickly to be convincing. He thought back to the daydream. He hadn't enjoyed it one bit, but his over-active mind often processed theoretical scenarios... and even though things had become relatively normal agin after his 'return', Tails still couldn't help but wonder in fear at the way things might have been... if he'd worked the way he was supposed to.

It scared him. He didn't... _like_ what he was.

Not that there was much he could do about it.

"Look, Tails..." Sonic sighed and rubbed his temples, looking over the fox sat glumly across from him with his arms folded, "I'm not stupid... I've known you for over five years..."

"Yeah..." Tails snorted, cutting off his adopted brother, "My whole life..."

 _"Miles..."_ Sonic pointed to the young fox, his face like that of a lecturing parent's, "I can read you like a book, dude. So I know something's wrong. And what it's probably about."

"So observant, Sonic..." Tails grunted, not meeting the hedgehog's eyes.

Sonic spread his arms pleadingly. "Come on, man! I'm your brother... I just wanna help! If you're hurting, I'm hurting, you get me?" The hedgehog leaned over the table as the fox chewed his lip, ears drooping. "So... why don't we talk about it? Might help make you feel a little better?"

Tails shifted in his seat and looked as though he were about to comply, before he was interrupted by a chirpy female voice.

"Hey, guys! Look who I found!"

The two males looked to find their pink companion now joined... by another gold and white Mobian Fox, female, wearing a maroon jumpsuit and long head fur arranged into twin bangs that trailed over her shoulders.

"Hi, Sonic!" Zooey, one of town's newest residents, waved happily to the blue hedgehog... and smiled awkwardly as she set eyes on his smaller friend. "Hi, Tails..."

Tails was short for his age... his perceived age of thirteen, at least. But right now he seemed to shrink even more, blushing so hard his face almost turned bright red, as he nervously played with his hands.

"H... Hi... Hi, Zooey..."

Amy and Sonic exchanged a knowing glance, and Sonic tried hard not to smirk at his brother's expense.

"Hey, Zo..." the blue hedgehog grinned, "Settling in okay?"

"Yeah!" Zooey had moved into the nearby town with her father the previous month, the father and daughter opening their own convenience store, and she'd become fast friends with Amy pretty quickly. By extention, she'd also gotten to know Sonic, the heroic super-speedy hedgehog... and Tails, his younger twin-tailed fox brother... who was smitten by the fourteen year old girl.

Sonic chuckled to himself. His little brother's first crush... it was both hilarious, and impossibly adorable.

"So, Tails..." Amy chirruped, shooting Sonic a sneaky grin, "Zooey was thinking about going to the carnival this weekend... isn't that right, Zo?"

The female fox blushed and fiddled with her claws, "Uh, yeah... I... I suppose..."

Sonic winked at Amy, as two very shy foxes did their best not to meet each other's eyes. "Hey dude, maybe you could go with? You don't get out much any more... might be fun!"

Tails shot a look of alarm at his brother, while Amy nudged her companion's arm.

"I... I..." Tails stammered, appearing comically flustered... before he shoved back his chair with a screech and positively ran from the fast food restaurant. "I think I left my matter/antimatter generator running..."

The fox shoved past people and service robots as he escaped, a garbage unit turning and bleeping in alarm as he bumped into its boxy metal hull.

The company he left behind watched on as he left, Amy wrapping a comforting arm around Zooey's shoulders as the vixen's ears drooped.

"Does he not like me that much?" She whispered, looking between the two hedgehogs with big blue eyes.

"Don't be silly!" Amy cooed, attempting to console the girl, "He's just... shy is all! I'm sure he'd love to go with you to the carnival! Right, Sonic?"

Sonic didn't reply, rubbing his chin as he watched after his departing brother. "Yeah... sure, Ames..." The hedgehog left the table and smiled back at the two females. "You girls enjoy yourselves, okay? I'm gonna go talk to him."

"You don't have to!" Zooey protested, raising her hands to her muzzle, "Just because of me!"

"It's okay..." Sonic shook his head and offered her a consoling grin, "Something's been eating at him for a few days... I think a little bro-to-bro conversation might be in order..."

"Go easy on him, Sonic..." Amy raised an eyebrow, "And let me know how it goes, okay?"

Sonic flashed his friend a lopsided grin and a thumbs up. "Will do, Ames!" He began to leave the restaurant, briefly pausing to call over his shoulder, "And bring me back some chilli dogs!"

Amy rolled her eyes at the hedgehog, while her orange companion giggled shyly. "Ugh... boys..."

......................................................

Tails was not okay.

He really was not okay.

"Buddy?" Sonic's eyes fell on the fox, slumped over at his computer station with his head buried in both arms. He didn't move a muscle. Not an ear twitched, not a single strand of fur wavered. If Sonic didn't know any better, the fox might pass for a corpse.

The hedgehog approached his brother carefully, resting a hand on his fluffy shoulder.

"Come on, dude..." Sonic said gently, squeezing the flesh beneath his palm, "You got me worried here..."

Tails relented, his face leaving the desk, and looked up to Sonic with bloodshot eyes. Sonic leaned down to him, now even more concerned.

"Ah, jeez dude... you been crying?"

Tails' lips twitched as he attempted to formulate a response... before he screwed his eyes shut and lunged into his brother's side, desperately hugging into the hedgehog's fur as he broke down completely.

Sonic could do nothing but hold his brother tight, as the fox began sobbing uncontrollably. His grip was almost crushing, but there was no way Sonic was letting his little brother alone like this.

"Hey... it's okay..." Sonic began rocking the fox, back and forth, just as he had done when Tails had been younger, "I'm here, bud..."

It took a short while for Tails to calm down, but eventually he cried himself out and regressed into a sniffling, hiccupping mess, lightly clutching onto the hedgehog.

Sonic pulled his brother out of his fur, and set both hands on Tails' shoulders. "Hey, dude... you okay?"

Tails shook his head, wiping his messy face on the back of a hand. 

"H... how _can_ I be okay, Sonic?" The fox responded weakly, his eyes red and puffy. "I... I just... _can't_ be..."

Sonic sat himself down next to his brother, the two now sharing the chair. "You wanna tell me what's eating you?"

Tails rubbed at his eyes, before looking sadly through his own hands. "You... _know_ what's 'eating me' Sonic..." The eyes flicked back to his brother's, "And you know why I can't... why I can't... _ask Zooey out..._ "

Sonic sighed, understanding his brother's point. "So... this _is_ about the girl you're crushing on, huh?"

Tails slumped dejectedly. "Yeah... I really like her, Sonic... like, _like_ like her... and it just can't happen..."

Sonic rubbed at his brother's shoulder. He knew exactly what Tails meant by that, but it upset him to hear the fox so... down with himself.

"Why's that, little dude?" the hedgehog said, fully aware of the response he would get. But Tails needed to deal with this, exorcise these demons, and talking about it might help him cope.

The fox looked at his as though he were an idiot. "Oh, I don't know!" Tails snapped condescendingly, raising a hand and counting off digits. "One, I snore.... two, I'm stupidly small for a Mobian my age, and she might feel self-conscious about being taller than me... am I missing anything?"

At that, right on cue, his fur appeared to ripple with activity... the considerable layer of thick orange fluff fizzled into nothing, followed by his flesh melting away... until, where the fox had sat, a mechanical skeleton composed of white steel and black rubber took his place, glowing blue eyes glaring at Sonic above the fleshless black hole of a nose, and grinning lipless teeth.

 _"Oh yeah, I'm a killer robot built by the most evil tyrant of our age to spy on people..."_ the machine said artificially, folding its white arms together as it finished counting off its steel claws, _"That might put her off a little..."_

Sonic sighed. Tails' behaviour was making sense now. When he had first revealed his new body, dubbed the Prower Advanced Model Mark One, he'd been proud of the work he had accomplished, and eager to show off his enhanced abilities just as though his own body were simply another of his inventions. Then Zooey showed up, and Tails... had slowly regressed back into this depressed state.

Sonic understood now. He should have seen it sooner.

"Killer Robot, huh..." Sonic muttered, "What happened to 'Synthetic Individual'?"

Tails shrugged, white shoulders moving up and down. _"It's what I am. Essentially. I was designed to infiltrate and eliminate people."_

"Hey, you built this yourself..." Sonic patted his mechanical sibling pointedly on the arm, "And you make your own destiny. So I don't wanna hear any more of this 'evil robot' bs, okay?"

Tails didn't respond, glowing blue eyes simply staring through the wood of his desk.

"So..." Sonic continued, "About Zooey... any reason you can't just ask her out?"

Again, Tails' eyes flicked to meet his. Even though there was no flesh currently covering the face to emote with, Sonic had spent enough time around Tails in his exposed state to read him like a book. And right now, Tails was... displeased.

 _"Sonic, look at me..."_ the machine gestured down at itself with a black-clawed hand, _"I can't do that... I can't go on dates, or get married, or have kids... any of those things I might like to do... I can't have a normal life, because of..."_ The fingers became a fist, and clacked against the smooth carapace of his own upper torso canopy, _"Because of this..."_

__

Sonic felt bad for his brother, the former infiltration unit sadly looking down upon its own exposed limbs. 

__

"Tails..." the hedgehog shook his brother's shoulder, "She doesn't have to know..." 

__

The glowing eyes once again met his, that blank face turning back to stare at him. 

__

_"You mean I lie. Again. Pass off as real and trick people. Again."_

__

"Dude, as far as everybody else in the damn world knows, you're the same old fox you've always been!" Not quite true. Aside from Sonic, there was a handful of people who knew of Tails' true nature, and all had sworn to keep their mouths shut tight about the fox's secret. 

__

_"Yeah, I'm aware..."_ the machine replied glumly, _"And you know how that makes me feel? I hate it. I was built to fool people, to pass as organic, and I'm still doing it now. I hate that about myself, Sonic..."_

__

"Uh huh, and do you think every Tom Dick and Harry knows I'm part nightmare-beast made of dark energy?" Sonic replied, referencing his werehog form, which he hadn't used in quite some time. "This is the real me!" He patted his chest with a gloved fist, and wore that lopsided grin of his, "This is the real Sonic! And it doesn't matter what you're made out of, Tails, you're still my brother, and I want to see you going on dates. Getting up to mischief. Having a _life_ , dude..."

__

Tails shook his head sadly. _"She... she'd notice something at some point, Sonic... I don't want to lie to her like that..."_

__

"What are you going to do then, mope for the rest of your life?" Sonic replied, "As far as I understand it, you can pretty much run forever, so that's a long time to miss out on the fun stuff!"

__

The machine remained slumped, fiddling with his own fingers. 

__

_"I don't know, Sonic..."_ Tails replied, _"I just... feel like nothing but a stupid robot..."_

__

"Uh, super cool and awesome Synthetic Individual?" Sonic corrected, shaking his brother by the arm, "Little brother of Sonic the Hedgehog?"

__

Tails shrugged, unconvinced. _"Maybe I should just expose myself... let everyone know... then I wouldn't have to lie any more..."_

__

Sonic wore an appalled expression. "Dude, do you know what would happen if you did that? You would be classified as an unregistered robot! Even if I could convince the robotics department not to drag you away, you'd have to be registered, insured..."

__

_"Well, I'm sorry to be such an inconvenient piece of hardware..."_

__

Sonic glared at his brother. "You'd lose your citizenship, Miles. Your Mobian-ity. You wouldn't be considered a person any more... and I can't deal with that, Miles. You're not just a machine, you're more than that. You know this."

__

_"Maybe it would be easier if I just was..."_ muttered the synthetic, _"Then I wouldn't have to deal with these... feelings..."_

__

"That's called life, little dude..." Sonic clapped his brother on the shoulder and left the chair, making to head out of the workshop. "Well, I'm starving... didn't get around to trying that new 'Meh' Burger' after all..." His lopsided grin faltered as he set eyes on the machine still slumped gloomily in its chair. "Tails... promise me you won't do anything stupid, yeah?"

__

The glowing blue eyes met his, as the white steel skull turned. _"Please define 'stupid'..."_

__

"You know what I mean..." replied Sonic, giving his brother a stern eye, "And... try and cheer up, Miles? I know you've... been through some shit this past year... but I'm here for you, okay?"

__

Tails' eyes flicked to the floor, before returning to his brother's. _"Okay, I'll try... sorry, Sonic..."_

__

The hedgehog winked. "Love ya, little buddy. I'm ordering pizza. You feel like eating anything? You're wasting away from where I'm standing..."

__

Tails offered him a rude gesture, but chuckled humourlessly all the same. The brothers would often rib one another for their particular 'conditions', and Tails was long used to the hedgehog's good natured teasing.

__

_Cheese fries..."_ the machine replied, _"And... thanks, Sonic... I'm glad you're my brother..."_

__

"You know it! Call ya when food's here!" Sonic turned and left Tails' study, where the gleaming steel machine sighed with rubbery artificial lungs. 

__

He raised his left arm, and at a thought from his mind, a holographic screen bloomed from emitters in the forelimb. He scrolled through the screen, until he landed on a list of contacts. There, in the 'recently added' category, was Zooey's name and cell phone number.

__

The machine took pause. He liked the female fox. He really did. And had he been... normal, he might have asked her out already. But the way he was...this stupid _robot_ that was his true form...

__

He couldn't. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't 

__

Tails' forearm computer flickered off and he again slumped back in his seat. He considered reforming his synthetic camouflage... but decided against it.

__

This, the mechanical skeleton composed of white steel, black rubber, plastic, circuits... this was what he truly was. There was no need to pretend in the safety of his own walls.

__

The lightweight form of the Prower Advanced Model Mark One raised itself from the seat before the computer, and headed off in search of something to fix. The fox inside needed the distraction.

__

....................................….............

__

Tails didn't eat much. He didn't need to. He had originally been built with a fully functioning digestive system and a wrapping of artificially grown organic flesh - both systems developed for believability, enabling him to pass as alive in his intended function as an infiltration unit - but in the refined form of the Prower Advanced Model Mark One, with its solid-holographic system of synthetic camouflage, he no longer had any organic components to maintain at all. The consumption of food was entirely unnecessary, and purely for his own enjoyment.

__

Well, that and to blend in amongst the vast majority of people who didn't know what he truly was.

__

But he enjoyed consuming food from time to time - after all, he had believed himself to be organic for most of his life - and so it was he found himself, at three in the morning, rummaging for leftover takeout, rubber tipped fingers rifling through brown paper bags of junk food.

__

He felt a flutter of satisfaction as he found what he was looking for - more cheese fries, now cold and greasy. Perfect.

__

Still in his exposed state, the predominantly white-carapace of the machine leaned against the kitchen counter and happily inserted cheese-covered sticks of deep fried potato between its steel teeth, crunching the cheesy treats down with relish. Bits of food slipped between the fleshless mouthparts, dropping to the floor, but Tails didn't care. He was depressed, and binging on junk, and the only silver lining was that he could eat as much of this garbage as he liked and it wouldn't affect his health in any way.

__

Well, the grease might clog up his systems. But that was a small price to pay for deliciousness.

__

Tails jerked in his gluttony as an alarmed squeak sounded from the kitchen door. Swivelling his head toward the sound, Tails' eyes lit up and projected bright blue spotlights across the room, framing a pink hedgehog in a magenta robe and rolls in her quills. Amy blinked at the harsh light, looking Tails over with shock.

__

_"Oh..."_ Tails deactivated his eye-lights, instead focusing on her with his night vision. _"Sorry Amy... I didn't mean to scare you..."_

__

Amy rubbed her eyes, the kitchen light flickering on as she fumbled for the switch. "It's okay Tails, you didn't scare me... just didn't expect anybody up at this time..." She looked his exposed form up and down in fascination.

__

Tails had forgotten. Amy hadn't seen his new body in this state yet. Only the false wrapping of flesh and fur he normally wore.

__

"Felt like getting some air?" The pink hedgehog said as she moved on over to the fridge.

__

_"Uh... yeah..."_ Tails hopped on to the excuse as to why he was currently without his synthetic skin, slanted vents lined down either side of his back opening and hissing as his temperature conditioning system pulsed, _"I can... cover up again if this makes you uncomfortable..."_

__

Amy reached out and took his hand, a plastic bottle of water now in the other. "Tails, please..." She offered him big, concerned eyes, "You don't need to hide from us! If this is what you need to do, this is what you need to do!"

__

Tails stared glumly at his cheese fries, clutching them in the white and black steel right hand of his exposed machine state.

__

_"If people knew this was what I am..."_ he muttered, _"They'd hate me..."_

__

"Tails..." Amy rubbed the hand she held, ignoring how cold the metal was, "You are what you are... you're like a little brother to me, and I love you just the same... Sonic and I just want to see you happy, okay?"

__

Tails looked up to her, blue eyes glowing dimly. _"I just want to have a normal life..."_ the machine whispered sadly, unable to form tears yet still capable of feeling the emotions, _"I just... want things to be the way they used to be..."_

__

Amy hugged him, wrapping her arms around his mechanical shoulders. She squeezed him tight, before stepping back, hands still on his shoulders, and looking him in the eyes.

__

"Then do it," she said, giving him a shake, "nothing is stopping you from being who you want to be, Tails. Not even this." She lightly banged a fist from his shining white carapace... and gasped as, within a couple of seconds, flesh and fur rematerialized around his mechanical form.

__

Tails sniffled, tears beginning to run down his reconstituted flesh. "I'm sorry, Ames..." The fox whimpered, "I'm... a total jerk for putting you guys through all this..."

__

"You're anything but a jerk, Tails..." Amy hugged him again, thankful to feel soft orange fur now beneath her embrace instead of cold hard steel.

__

The two held their hug for a short while longer, before separating and stepping back. 

__

"Thanks, Amy..." Tails said, clutching his cheese fries sheepishly, "I... don't deserve you and Sonic..."

__

"Yes you do!" Amy, slightly taller than the orange fox, planted a kiss on his forehead. "And you know what I deserve? A beauty sleep..." She turned, bottle of water in hand, and made to leave the kitchen. "Wake one of us if you need to..." She added, glancing back at her friend, "And for chaos' sake, Tails... sleep in a bed tonight, okay?"

__

Tails drooped his reformed ears, having spent the last few nights simply powering down wherever he felt like it. Neither Sonic nor Amy had said anything, but he knew it bothered them when they discovered an unconscious orange fox or white-steel skeleton just standing in place, in a state of low power consumption.

__

"Okay, Amy..."

__

Amy smiled once more. "Goodnight, Miles..."

__

"Night, Ames..."

__

With that, Amy left the kitchen and headed back to her room within the shared household, slippered feet thumping on the stairs.

__

Tails stood alone with his junk food, considering his options. He could, as Sonic said, mope around and wallow in self-pity for the rest of his life (Which, with proper upkeep and maintenance, could theoretically be forever), or he could... choose to live a little.

__

He might be a machine, a manufactured personality with false memories of a life he had never had, but internally he was still the thirteen year old Miles Prower who had fought alongside Sonic since first meeting him.

__

His left arm shed its covering of synthetic flesh as his internal computer bloomed out, once again displaying the contact details of one Zooey Denn.

__

Tails bit his lip, knowing he was a damned fool for doing this... but typed out a message anyway. It was late, but if he was going to do this it had to be now... before he lost his nerve.

__

He tapped send. The message was gone.

__

The synthetic leaned back and rubbed his eyes, in an imitation of fatigue, and mumbled to himself.

__

"You're an idiot, Tails... but I guess there's no going back now..."

__

.....................................................

__

Male Mobians often forwent the wearing of clothing, outside of practicality or protection. Clothing for fashion purposes was a largely human concern, the large hairless apes evolving with greater need for the extra layers. The fur of most Mobian Males was typically thicker than that of the females as well, giving them even less need to play dress-up than the females.

Especially 'Mobians' like Miles Prower. 

But today was special.

__

Tails, clad in the smartest garment he or Sonic owned - a blue suit jacket of Sonic's, slightly too big for his small frame - bounced nervously in matching blue and white sneakers as he stood before the wooden door of Zooey and her father's store. From further in town, the sounds of crowds could be hear drifting from the carnival, the destination... of Tails' first date.

__

_Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid._

__

His first date. Dammit, this was a bad idea. He was wracked with worry, synthetic fur sticking out on end.

__

"Relax, Tails..." he whispered to himself, internal systems pulsing as he attempted to steady his nerves, "You got this... just be cool..."

__

Cool. Yeah, sure. He ran a quick diagnostic of his internal systems, for the hundredth time that day, just to keep his mind occupied. He focused particularly on the system that operated his synthetic camouflage... he didn't need that crapping out and exposing him.

__

"Not just a machine..." He hissed to himself, in an attempt to boost his own morale, "You are not just a machine... you are a person, and you have a life..." 

__

His ears pricked as he detected movement over his shoulder. He turned to find a street-sweeping robot, a clunky model, paused in its duties and seemingly staring at him in fascination.

__

Crap. Could it tell?

__

Tails checked his vicinity, making sure nobody else was around, before hissing a stream of clicking noises directed toward the curious robot. The thing's basic logic processors worked, decoding the machine-speak, and it went on its way.

__

Tails again checked nobody had heard that, and wondered why the thing had clocked him as artificial. The clunky service robots never had before... maybe his synthetic camouflage system was more easily detectable by the city's service bots than the artificially-grown organic covering of his previous form. He'd have to do something about that.

__

He was interrupted in his thoughts as, behind him, the door to the Denn family's store creaked open. Tails spun around, nervously attempting to straighten his raggedy appearance as a tall, bespectacled fox Mobian looked down at him.

__

Tails cowered under the man's gaze, recognising this as Zooey's father.

__

"H... hi, mister Denn…" the smaller fox stammered, fiddling with his hands, "I'm... here to pick up Zooey?"

__

The fox gestured toward the younger male. "Sonic's brother, right?" Tails nodded timidly. "Hnn. Good kid. You'll do." he turned his head and called back into the building. "Zoe? Your feller's here!"

__

A faint voice replied from the depths of the store, too quiet for Tails' audio receptors unable to decipher the words.

__

The older fox shook his head and chuckled. "Girls, huh?" He then did something Tails didn't expect, and extended a hand to the smaller male. "Zachary Denn. Good to meet ya, son."

__

Tails took the offered hand, and made damn sure he didn't crush the thing in his nerves.

__

"Miles Prower!" He replied, shaking in greeting.

__

"Sorry Tails, just finished getting ready!"

__

Both male foxes turned as the female in concern appeared, immaculately groomed fur wrapped in a maroon dress, head fur fixed back in a single long tail. She grinned as she approached her date, who once again cowered shyly.

__

"Hi Zooey..."

__

Tails, already short for his perceived age, looked even smaller now as he shrank back.

__

The two young foxes awkwardly hovered apart from one another, before the larger male chuckled and spoke up.

__

"Okay kids... you goin' or what?"

__

Two sets of ears perked, and two pairs of embarrassed blue eyes looked to him.

__

"Sure, dad..." Zooey grinned and grabbed Tails' hand, leading him away from her father. "Come on, Tails! We don't wanna miss the attractions!"

__

"Have fun!" The older male called after the two kids, watching them depart down the street. He set his hands on his hips and nodded approvingly. The Prower kid, shy though he might be, was alright.

__

..................................................

__

The carnival was a throng of people, families with their children, couples enjoying the night, vendors selling their wares from food carts, barkers attracting people to their games... Tails tagged along behind Zooey as the female happily flitted about, just content to allow her to enjoy herself. 

__

Another service bot crossed his path, retrieving litter from the ground. This one didn't seem to pay him any mind, but he steered clear all the same. He didn't want a repeat of earlier. 

__

"This is fun right?" Zooey fell in beside him again, this time clutching a pair of ice creams. She handed one to Tails - mint chocolate. He licked at the thing, and smiled. Tasty.

__

"Right?" His companion repeated, the smaller fox having not replied to her inquiry.

__

Tails sputtered as he scrambled to recover. "Uh... yeah! Yeah, this is fun! I'm having fun! So much fun! Wow!!"

_Great. That didn't sound odd at all._

Zooey's ears drooped as they meandered through the crowd. "Are you sure?"

__

Tails kicked himself internally. In his own nervous state, he had neglected to pay much attention to the girl he had invited on this date in the first place... too busy thinking, worrying, processing scenarios... and now she thought he didn't want to be there with her.

__

"I'm... sorry, Zoe..." the fox said, slumping apologetically, "I'm having a great time, really. It's nice to get out and... relax for a change! With... with you!"

__

She smiled despite his awkward, clumsy attempt at reconciliation. 

__

"It's nice to spend time with you too, Tails!"

__

The two foxes grinned shyly at one another, before Zooey once again took charge and lead Tails over to a stall.

__

"Hey, look!" Tails found himself at a small firing range of a carnival attraction, a large wolf Mobian aiming down the sights of a pellet gun, fruitlessly attempting to hit the targets scrolling by down the range. The wolf growled in frustration as he expended his last shot, and set the weapon down with a clunk.

__

"Rigged!" he snarled, pointing at the vendor, "This game is rigged, I tells ya!"

__

The vendor, a human with a raggedy beard and a wide brimmed hat, took the weapon and flashed the wolf a broken-toothed grin. "Must be your aim, mate!"

__

"I served in the Airborne! My aim is as good as it gets!"

__

The human shrugged. "Always welcome to try again, mate?"

__

The wolf simply growled and turned away, leaving the stall in search of something alcoholic to calm his temperament. As the wolf left, Zooey pointed to the prize shelf. 

__

"Oh my god!" she cooed, finger pointing to a very large stuffed pink elephant, "That is so cute!"

__

The human took note of her interest, and flashed his toothless grin at Tails.

__

Hoo boy. Tails knew where this was going.

__

"What say, little feller?" The human rasped, tucking his thumbs into his belt, "fancy winning that thing for the little lady?"

__

Zooey looked to Tails, eyes glinting excitedly. 

__

Tails handed her his ice cream cone. "Hold my beer, Zoe."

__

Zooey snickered and grinned. "You go, Tails!"

"I got this!" Tails stepped forward, taking the pellet gun offered by the human. He climbed onto a raised platform situated before the firing range, so his short frame could better see over the counter.

__

"Go for it, short stuff!" The human cackled, as Tails checked the weapon in his hands.

__

Tails grinned back at the man. Maybe he'd abuse his abilities after all.

__

Sighting the weapon down range, Tails' temperament changed completely. The grin fell, his eyes went blank, and his movements became tight and mechanical as he efficiently fired at the scrolling targets. With his supply of pellets, he hit every single one. Not a single pellet went to waste.

__

"Woah, nice work little guy!"

__

The human looked back down to Tails with surprise, clearly not expecting the youngster to have such proficient aim. He reached up to the prize shelf and grabbed the pink elephant from its perch.

__

"Oh my gosh, that was great, Tails!" Zooey squealed as she clasped the shorter male's shoulder, retrieving the elephant from the man.

__

Tails didn't respond. He simply maintained an idle stance, weapon lowered.

__

"I'll... be having that back now, son?" The human reached out to retrieve the pellet gun... and recoiled as the fox's head snapped to face him, cold dead eyes regarding the man curiously.

__

Tails unblinkingly maintained eye contact with the man as he handed the weapon back.

__

"Affirmative..." the fox replied blankly.

__

"Uh, Tails?" Zooey lightly shook her companion's shoulder, causing the eyes to flick to her, "We... should get going?"

__

Tails stared into her with that lifeless expression, before allowing himself to be lead by the hand away from the stall.

__

The human manning the attraction watched after the departing foxes as they melted back into the crowd, and shivered at the thought of that blank face. "Creepy kid..."

__

.....................…................................

__

Zooey walked Tails away from the crowds, noting his continued lack of expression and utter silence. Now alone in a quiet street, she set him down on a nearby bench and sat beside him, shifting the elephant in her grasp.

__

"Tails?" She lightly clenched his shoulder, squeezing the fur beneath the blue jacket, "Tails, are you sure you're alright?"

__

The dead blue eyes met hers, but Tails still didn't respond.

__

"Tails?!" She now shook him harder, causing his head to rock. "Tails, you're really creeping me out here..."

__

Tails frowned, the expression finally breaking the blank mask... and life seemed to return to his eyes as he clenched his ears in both hands.

__

"Ah, crap!" the fox squeaked, voice high pitched with panic, "jeez, I'm sorry Zooey! I'm so sorry!!"

__

"What happened with you?" The vixen asked, concern in her voice.

__

Tails shook his head. "I... guess I zoned out..." He rubbed sheepishly at the back of his head, "must be lack of sleep... I don't get much. Always busy, you know?"

__

"Well, you creeped me the heck out!" Zooey allowed a nervous laugh to escape her throat, relieved her date had returned to normal, "You really weren't yourself for a while there!"

__

Tails chuckled humourlessly, eyes leaving hers and staring through his hands. "Actually..." the fox muttered, "That's more 'me' than you realise..."

__

Zooey frowned as Tails turned his attention to a nearby street-sweeping robot, that paused in its work and regarded the fox curiously. 

__

Tails screwed his eyes shut and hissed to himself, burying his face in both hands. "Stupid... why did I say that..."

__

"Tails..." Zooey, suddenly apprehensive and... nervous in his presence, leaned away from him slightly, "What... is that supposed to mean?"

__

Tails removed his face from his palms, glared at the still immobile street-sweeper, and sighed in resignation.

__

"I... I shouldn't tell you..." His eyes turned back to hers, filled with conflict. "But I... really like you, Zooey. Like, a whole lot... and I don't wanna lie to you like this..."

__

Zooey now had to resist the urge to just run. Tails, the sweet and shy younger brother of the heroic Sonic the Hedgehog, was beginning to scare her.

__

"I'm..." Tails voice shook, and he fumbled with his hands as his eyes darted across the floor and his ears drooped, "I'm a _machine_ , Zooey..." He looked back to her and gestured at himself with both hands. "this... all this is just an illusion... just a disguise so I blend in with people... it's all a lie... _I'm_ just a lie..."

__

Zooey suddenly scrutinised him intensely, eyes wide as she considered the smaller fox.

__

_Great... my first date, and the guy's a lunatic..._

__

Zooey stood and gripped tightly to the strap of her bag, the elephant tucked under her other arm. 

__

"Okay, Tails?" She looked at him fearfully, the male shrinking under her glare, "I think I'm going to leave now...it's been fun! But I think you have a few... issues to work out, so I'll leave you to deal with that, okay?"

__

Tails chuckled to himself. "You don't believe me..." He muttered, raising to his feet. She stepped back at the motion, utterly convinced the smaller fox was unhinged. 

__

He seemed to consider for a moment, gloomily looking toward the street-sweeper that began to continue its duties. 

__

"Screw it..." The fox muttered, unbuttoning and removing his blue jacket, "I'm sick and tired of fooling people... maybe it's for the best if people know what I really am..."

__

Zooey was about to bolt, but couldn't help but watch in morbid curiosity as Tails allowed his jacket to drop to the floor, wondering what he was intending to do as he faced her and planted his feet.

__

And then she stared in disbelief as his fur dissolved, leaving the flesh beneath to ripple and melt away... the last part of his flesh to vanish was around his face, the baby blue eyes fizzling away into glowing blue orbs... until a white and black, skeletal machine stood in his place, the silent hum of power radiating from within.

__

_"Believe me now?"_ the synthetic said glumly, Tails' voice reverberating between the exposed teeth.

__

Zooey gawped at the machine, reoiling in fear... before she glared in disgust and jabbed a finger at the skeletal frame.

__

"You... you're a _robot?!_ "

__

'Tails' fiddled with his hands again, metallic rubber tipped fingers clicking against one another. _"I... prefer the term Synthetic Individual..."_

__

Zooey apparently couldn't care less what he preferred. "I... I held your _hand!!!_ " She disgustedly threw her stuffed elephant at the machine, Tails flinching as the toy bounced from the white carapace of his ribs. Zooey looked him over with distaste one last time, and turned to storm away. "I can't deal with this..."

__

_"I just wanted to be honest with you..."_ Tails muttered after her, causing her to shoot him one last look of revulsion before turning the street corner.

__

The machine sighed, looking down to the pink toy it had won for the vixen. The elephant looked up at him stupidly.

__

With a sudden spike of rage, Tails raised his foot and stomped the stuffed animal flat, the pavement beneath cracking with the force of the blow. His mechanical shoulders heaved up and down, in an imitation of anger, as his glowing eyes met the street-sweeping robot once again. The thing had stopped to ponder the sudden arrival of this new, unidentified machine in its vicinity.

__

_"What are you looking at?"_ Tails clicked at the thing. The sweeper bleeped in response, and continued on its rounds.

__

Tails slumped, filled with self-loathing as he stared through the crushed elephant. _"Dunno what you expected, Tails..."_ he muttered to himself, _"But at least it's done with..."_

__

Tails was suddenly very aware that he was standing in public, exposed, during a night when the streets would fill back up with carnival-goers. The presently deserted street wouldn't remain so for long.

__

He didn't care. He was stupid to think he could be a real boy... when in reality, this was what he was. Just a robot. A stupid robot, no different to the bulky sweeper that continued down the road.

__

What was the point in pretending otherwise?

__

As the night wore on, and people began to leave the carnival and head back to their homes, there was much confusion and bewilderment at the strange, twin-tailed mobianoid machine that trudged through the streets toward the outskirts of town. 

__


	2. The Measure of a Miles

Sonic couldn't remember the last time he'd gotten mad with his little brother.

Ever since Sonic had known him, Tails had never really put a foot wrong... the two would snark at one another, get on each others' nerves every so often, but Sonic couldn't think of a single time Tails had ever made him properly angry.

But this was different. The now adult Sonic couldn't help but be angry as he paced the living room floor, the dejected form of his brother slumped in the sofa beside him.

Sonic was mad. He was mad because Tails had done something else he wasn't ordinarily known for - been very, very stupid.

"Do you know..." the hedgehog said through gritted teeth, pausing in his back and forth to glare at the machine, "What you've done to yourself, Miles?"

Tails didn't respond, remaining silent in his exposed state. his eyes refused to meet Sonic's, simply staring through the floor.

They'd just got back through the door not five minutes ago. Twenty minutes since Sonic had been contacted, with news of a strange unregistered android wandering the streets of town, miserably claiming to be Miles Prower when quizzed on its identity.

Sonic had rushed to retrieve his brother, whom he found slumped in a park bench, surrounded by curious citizens. 

"It says it's your brother..." one nearby police officer had told him, "but that can't be, right?"

Sonic had been bombarded with questions, and done his best to get Tails out of there and to safety. He must have had a hundred messages waiting for him when they returned home, from friends, from concerned citizens, from the authorities - in particular the GUN Department of Robotics, who were very interested to know why Sonic had an unregistered, highly advanced robot in his possession.

Amy was busy chattering on the phone, handling damage control while Sonic dealt with his brother.

"Tails, talk to me!" Sonic repeated, inadvertently raising his voice. "Do you understand how much trouble you're in?"

Tails finally responded, offering the hedgehog a shrug. _"I just did what I had to do..."_

"What you had to do? Tails, I have the Department of Robotics on my ass over this! They could legally take you away and dismantle you right now!! That's how serious this is! Because it was something you 'had to do?!' "

 _"At least now everybody knows..."_ Tails replied glumly, still refusing to meet Sonic's eyes, _"I can't trick anybody ever again..."_

"You'll be lucky if you're allowed outside unsupervised ever again..." Sonic muttered, sitting himself down beside his brother. "And don't even get me started on Zooey's dad... he's threatened to, I quote, 'take that thing apart myself if it ever comes near my daughter again'..." he shook his head and regarded his mechanical brother sadly. "Seriously, dude? You thought it was a good idea to just... _show yourself_ right in front of her? Jeez, man..."

Tails turned to glare at the hedgehog with glowing optics. _"You pushed me into asking her out! What did you think would happen? You thought she'd never find out? And what about everybody else! Somebody was bound to notice I never aged, or grew, or got sick... this wasn't going to stay secret forever, Sonic..."_

Sonic made to answer, but his words caught in his throat. Tails was right...

"I'm... sorry, buddy..." the hedgehog sighed, ears and spines drooping as he considered their situation, "I shouldn't have pushed you to do anything you weren't comfortable with... I just wanted to see you happy again..."

 _"I'm a machine, Sonic..."_ Tails replied solemnly, _"I shouldn't be able to feel happy... I shouldn't be able to feel anything, and I'm stupid for thinking I could be a real boy... I guess this is what I deserve."_

The two brothers sat in silence, until Amy emerged from the kitchen with Sonic's phone in hand.

"Sonic?" She briefly glanced at Tails' dejected form before handing the other hedgehog the cordless phone, "The Department of Robotics wants to talk to you..."

"Great..." Sonic hopped to his feet and looked sadly at his brother, before retrieving the phone from Amy and heading into the kitchen.

Amy took Sonic's place on the couch, and rested her hand on Tails' own. "Why, Miles..." she said softly, wishing he'd reform his synthetic flesh so she could read his expression, "Why did you do it?"

The glowing blue eyes just stared through the floor. _"I just wanted to be honest..."_

Amy sighed, stroking his hand, unsure if he could even feel the comforting gesture through the exposed metal. He had just wanted to be honest... but his honesty may have just cost him his freedom.

...................................................…

"Alright, I'm coming! I'm coming!!"

Sonic batted at his still moist fur with a hand towel, currently in a fluffy state after his shower. The damn guy shouldn't have been here this early...

The hedgehog, smelling of shampoo and body spray, unlocked and opened the door to his and Tails' remote lodgings, situated outside the main city. Outside stood a tall human, suited in plain grey GUN overalls... and accompanying him, a black and red striped hedgehog.

"Mister... Olgilvie Maurice Hedgehog?"

Sonic bristled at his full legal name, and glared at the man. "Yeah. I take it you're here for the inspection?"

"That's correct..." The man looked down to his companion, whom seemed to be causing him some discomfort. "And this is Shadow. He'll be... supervising this inspection..."

"I know who Shadow is," Sonic muttered. He nodded to the other hedgehog. "Thanks for coming, Shads."

Shadow grunted in reply, unhappy with the situation himself.

"Well then..." the human continued, hefting a large case, "I'll need to see the... unit."

Sonic stepped back and gestured inside the house. "This way..."

The man entered first, followed by Shadow, and Sonic reluctantly shut the door behind them before padding after his 'guests'.

Civilian-owned robots weren't uncommon any more in the GUN. For years, Robotnik had been fielding his own machines against the peoples of Mobius... and it had only been a matter of time before humans and Mobians alike began reverse engineering his work. Thus, mechanical labour had become increasingly common in military and civilian sectors, and citizens could purchase their own privately owned robots. 

Such machines had to be registered, and insured, and routinely inspected by Robotics Department representatives.

And today... it was Miles Prower's turn to be registered as a civilian unit, a privately owned item of equipment. This inspection was just one part of the former fox losing even more of his Mobianity.

"Tails?" Sonic called, entering his brother's workshop, "It's time..."

They found Tails waiting timidly on a workbench, sat there with his legs hanging over the wooden edge. 

"Oh my..." the GUN inspector marvelled as glowing blue eyes met him, their owner shrinking a little away from the larger human. "This is the unit, I assume?"

"He's my brother." Sonic growled, the man's de-personising attitude rubbing his inner feral side the wrong way.

The man recoiled apologetically. "Of... of course. May I..." He hefted his case, "begin the inspection?"

Sonic gestured toward the waiting android. "Ask him. It's his body you're gonna be poking around in..."

The man, clearly unaccustomed to asking permission from a machine, appeared bewildered for a moment, before remembering the unique nature of this particular unit.

"Um... unit?" 

The blue eyes fixed back on him, expressionless skull face blank. Waiting.

"May I... um..."

 _"Let's just get this over with..."_ Tails shoved himself from the workbench, metal feet clattering over the concrete floor. The human jerked back at the machine's initiative, and the way it approached him with organic motions. 

Tails turned his back to the human, his back panel popping open and sliding away from his frame. The human tentatively gripped it in both hands and removed it, placing the protective cover on the ground as he knelt to peek into Miles' inner workings.

"Fascinating..." the man muttered, inserting cables into the exposed working of Tails' body, connecting him to a data pad. "This is... really something..."

 _"I'm flattered..."_

Again, the man seemed taken aback by the machine's response. 

"This _is_ just an inspection, right?" Sonic asked of the human, "You better not be doing anything... funny, in there..."

"Yes, I'm just here to figure out the unit's systems, ensure it isn't a danger, log it in our records... I'll have to apply some basic safety measures of course, but nothing too invasive..." He glanced briefly to Shadow, who stood glaring at the man, arms folded. "We have an arrangement! I swear!"

Shadow nodded. "He knows to behave himself."

The human swallowed nervously, before continuing his work.

Sonic hummed, still unhappy with their circumstance, and turned to Shadow.

"Thanks, Shads..." he said, causing a black ear to twitch, "If it weren't for you, I don't... I don't know what would've happened..."

Shadow shifted on his feet, and offered a grunt in response.

"It probably wouldn't have gone so well..." he said, eyes fixed on the human operating inside Tails. "You're lucky you have Rouge and I to pull a few strings... and that your reputation offers you some level of favour."

"Yeah... I guess Tails' reputation doesn't offer him the same, huh?"

"He's a highly advanced machine, of which the GUN has never seen..." Shadow replied, fixing a stern glare on the blue hedgehog, "Believe me, he's lucky he's just being registered on the privately own robots list, and not dismantled in a lab somewhere along with Robotnik's other more advanced creations."

"Still, I... hate this, Shadow..." Sonic sighed, "He's not an object... he's a person, with his own mind... Nobody should _own_ him, least of all..." Sonic paused, feeling dirty just for saying the words, "Least of all _me.._ "

"If he's going to be registered under anybody as a possession..." Shadow lay a hand on his blue counterpart's shoulder, the once edgy-as-all-hell loner having softened over the years, "It's best that it is you."

Sonic shook his head. "I can't be okay with this..."

"If it's any consolation..." Shadow replied, "I'll do what I can to reverse this..." Shadow, created by a Robotnik himself, was also invested in the fate of the former infiltration unit. "These are only temporary measures, Sonic. We can fight this. Restore his individuality."

Sonic watched as the human, fussing over the data like a child with a cool new toy, excitedly tapped at his pad with a finger. "I hope you're right, Shadow..."

….............................................…….

"Welp, congratulations Tails..."

Sonic slapped a sheaf of papers in his hand, approaching Tails as the synthetic stood nearby his own maintenance unit, a multi-limbed robot that Tails used to repair and maintain his body. The machine's eyes slowly warmed into a dim glow, Sonic having just woken him from a period of low power consumption.

Sonic held up the papers, a tired look in his eyes. "You are no longer Miles Prower, citizen of the Mobian Territories and my adopted brother..." He handed Tails the documents, blue eyes flicking over the information contained. "You are now officially registered on the privately owned robots list as the Personal Service Unit of one Olgilvie Maurice Hedgehog." Sonic turned and looked back at his brother, resentment bleeding from his every pore. "I hope you're proud of yourself, Miles. Your little stunt just cost you your freedom."

Tails continued to read the documents pertaining to his new status as a privately owned robot, white steel mask expressionless. It had been days since the incident with Zooey, and he still hadn't regenerated his camouflage. It seemed the synthetic fox had given up entirely on any pretence of being organic.

 _"Confirmed,_ " Tails replied without emotion, _"New functions and registration logged. Awaiting directives."_

"Don't be stupid, Tails..." Sonic angrily grabbed the documents away from his brother, the synthetic's arms drooping limply by his sides, "I'm not ordering you around like some... _slave_. I'm fighting this. Shadow is doing what he can, we're going to get your citizenship restored if it kills me!"

The machine cocked its head quizzically. _"Why?"_

Sonic gawped at his brother. "Why? Tails, surely you don't _want_ to be considered a piece of equipment? Just something to be bossed around?"

Tails shrugged. _"At least I have a purpose. Machines are designed to serve organics, after all."_ there was a pause as Sonic rubbed his face with fatigue, Tails' eyes briefly flickering as he 'blinked'. _"So what do you want me to do?"_

"Tails..." Sonic glared right into his brother's glowing eyes, suddenly very serious. "I want you to get your head together... snap out of this freaking _depression!_ I... feel like I'm losing you, buddy... and just when I got you back? Please don't do this to me, Miles..."

Tails remained still. _"So, just to confirm, you have no orders for me at this time?"_

"No!" Sonic cried, disgusted at the notion of... _owning_ a person, "Jeez, Tails..."

 _"Fine. Then I might as well power back down. No need to expend energy if I have no function."_ Tails turned back to his original position, feet planted to the concrete floor of his workshop. _"Reboot me when you need something..."_

"Tails..."

There was no reply as the machine slowly went limp, the eyes dimming down to lifelessly stare through the floor.

Sonic set his hands on his hips and wore an unamused expression as his brother powered down into his resting state.

"Tails. Wake up."

Nothing.

"Tails, I know you can hear me."

This much was essentially true. Tails' sensors could scan his environment even in this state, keeping him somewhat aware of what was going on around him.

"I'm not _ordering_ you to wake up, if that's what you're waiting for."

Still nothing. Seemed Tails was done with talking for now.

"Fine..." Sonic turned and began to walk away, disappointed with his brother's attitude. "You wanna play robot, you do it by yourself..."

Tails didn't respond, choosing to simply remain an inert machine as he was left alone in the dark workspace. 

…..............................................................

Well, at least as a Personal Service Unit... his function was to perform miscellaneous tasks for his owner. Made a nice change from 'Killer Robot Spy', anyway.

Sonic refused to give his synthetic assistance any orders however, so Tails... not Tails, now simply Civilian Unit-1701, had to assume its own directives, taking care of the things the hedgehog made no time for. Mostly domestic duties, that Sonic had always been lax on.

Sonic and Amy had been concerned about their friend throwing himself into this role of servitude... but it was either that or Tails would spend the majority of his time powered down, waking only to run a quick checkup on his systems and ask if they required anything of him.

Sonic hated it. But Amy had thought it best to at least prompt Tails into doing _something,_ just to keep him active.

So it was that Civilian Unit-1701 found itself, reusable shopping bags in hand, traipsing behind Amy Rose as she went about her business shopping. 

"Tails..." Amy turned and whispered back to her companion as they trudged through the outskirts of town, "Are you sure you don't want to... cover up? People are looking..."

Tails, still fully exposed and white-steel form gleaming in the sun, didn't care.

 _"Why? It's not like I'm the only robot in town..."_ Glowing blue eyes set upon a clanking garbage disposal unit as it slung trash into its assigned truck, the Mobian supervisor briefly casting a dirty look toward the nearby android. Around them, citizens passed by, many unable to help but gawp at the city's newest resident synthetic.

"I don't... like people looking at you like that..." Amy replied, hefting her own large pink bag on her shoulder. "Like... like you're _dangerous..._ "

 _"Well..."_ Tails gloomily watched as people steered well clear of his skeletal form, eyeing him with caution, even _betrayal_. _"No need to worry about that any more..."_

Despite his friends' best efforts at preserving as much of his individuality as possible, the Department of Robotics had insisted the unit be outfitted with a locating device, to track his movements at all times... as well as a restraining bolt to inhibit his abilities. His strength, his speed... reduced, just in case the unit decided to 'malfunction' and harm any real people.

Just more symptoms of his mobianity slowly eroding away.

"Let's just... keep going, huh?" amy replied, grabbing his hand and leading him through the crowd of pedestrains, most of whom stayed clear of him. His exposed rubbery musculature hissed quietly as he allowed himself to be guided along.

 _"Why did you even bring me?"_ the synthetic complained, steel feet clacking against the concrete, _"You know people don't trust me... I fooled everybody for too long..."_

"Because..." Amy hissed back at him, "You can't just stay cooped up forever... and it's a nice day out! Be good for you to get some sun!"

_"Oh yeah... real healthy for my skin..."_

"Don't be sardonic, Miles..." Amy groaned back at the machine she had long considered a younger sibling. 

Tails said nothing more as they made their way through town, simply keeping his head down and refusing to meet the prying eyes as people tried to get a curious look at the slim, sleek machine that contrasted so harshly against the clanking bulky forms of the city's service robots. He was light years ahead of anything the GUN could manufacture, having been one of Robotnik's most advanced creations... and the self-constructed Prower Advanced Model Mark One his mind now inhabited was beyond even that. 

Something to be proud of, he supposed. He was a real neat toy.

Real expensive, too. He winced as he thought about the cost of the insurance Sonic had been forced to take out for his swanky, brand new robot.

Then he stopped in his tracks. Amy yelped as her hand was met with the sudden resistance.

"Tails!" The pink hedgehog massaged her arm as she looked to the now immobile synthetic, fussing with her dress, "What's the matter? Why'd you just stop?"

Her mechanical companion glanced at her, before nodding over her shoulder. _"I... don't think I should go in there"_

Amy turned to find them now stood outside the Denn family's convenience store. She scolded herself, having unwittingly lead her friend right to the place his slow erosion as a person had started.

"It's okay, Tails..." Amy said, soothingly rubbing his arm, "We can go someplace else if you like..."

 _"Not my decision..."_ the machine shrugged, _"this is the closest place right now... unless you wanna head further into town..."_

Amy knew her friend was unenthusiastic about either option. She looked to the family-owned store and considered. Maybe she could explain things to Zach and Zooey, make them understand what the fox was going through right now..."

"Wait here, Miles..." She said, retrieving her empty shopping bags from his grasp, "I'll be ten minutes..."

_"Affirmative..."_

Amy rubbed his arm and headed into the store, leaving her friend outside by himself. Shortly after she entered the store, a human, a farmer by the looks of her attire, left with her own personal unit in tow. The human gave him a wide-eyed look of surprise but otherwise ignored him, while the chunky, vaguely humanoid robot acknowledged him with a few clicks. The chatter was largely mindless, simply taking note of another machine's presence. He scanned its function and registry; Civilian Unit 343, an older variant model built for manual labour.

His attention was diverted away from the other robot as a young bunny-girl and her mother passed by, the girl pointing at him with her mouth agape.

"Mommy? What's _that?_ "

The adult rabbit shot him daggers, clutching her child's hand and hurrying her away. "Just a robot, dear..."

"It's so cool! Can we get one like that?"

"No honey, it's too dangerous..."

He blocked out _that_ particular exchange and reverted to standing idly, nothing to do but wait for Amy's return. He checked the time since her departure - two minutes forty-eight seconds. Bored, he considered powering down until she returned, but before he could do so a horribly familiar voice sounded from behind him.

"Oh... it's you..."

His sensors had picked the presence up as she approached, and his suspicion was confirmed as his glowing blue optics settled on the fluffy golden form of Zooey Denn, clad in a pair of denim shorts and maroon tank top as she finished dealing with the morning stock delivery. She eyed him suspiciously, blue eyes flicking up and down his exposed steel and rubber form.

 _"Denn. Zooey. Fox, female."_ Tails replied, voice flat and monotone as he turned his body to face her. _"How can this unit be of assistance?"_

Zooey wore an expression of... not contempt... pity? Remorse? She appeared to be reluctant in his presence.

"So..." She muttered, folding her arms defensively, "This is the real you..."

 _"Affirmative. This unit is designated as CU-1701, registered under Olgilive Maurice Hedgehog."_ the synthetic replied stoically, _"How can this unit be of assistance?"_

"Can you not talk like that?" She said, leaning away slightly, "It's... creepy..."

 _"Sure..."_ Tails allowed his robotic mannerisms to slack, loosening his stance. _"What do you want?"_

The vixen flinched at the bitterness now injected into his tone, leaning over to peer at the store. Without warning she grabbed his forearm, and glared into his eyes.

"Come on!" the vixen hissed, wrenching him away from his 'parking spot'. Once again, he allowed himself to be steered around like an animatronic, until she released her grip. Now in the yard behind the store, she again turned to glare at him.

"Tails, you shouldn't be here..." she said, keeping her voice low, "If my dad catches you... he's still angry!"

 _"I can't imagine why..."_ Tails replied dryly.

Zooey shook her head, sitting down on a nearby crate. "Why did you do it, Tails? Expose yourself like... this?"

_"Well you knew. Guess I figured it was just a matter of time before my secret was out, so I thought screw it."_

Zooey leaned forward, bangs trailing over her shoulders. "I wasn't going to _tell_ anybody! Jeez Tails, you freaked me out, but I wasn't going to ruin your life! My dad didn't even know until... well, you were seen walking through town like..." She gestured him up and down, unsure of her words, "Like _this!_ "

Tails lowered his head, silent. He knew he had screwed up, acted out of his own guilt and self-loathing. His current predicament was entirely his fault.

"Look, I'm sorry this had to happen to you..." Zooey sighed, "But why the heck did you think it was a good idea to show _me_ the way you did?! You scared me to death!"

Tails shrugged. _"Faulty programming, I guess. Maybe I should have myself reset to factory conditions."_

Zooey glared up at him from her crate and rubbed her head tiredly. "Tails... you have _no idea_ what you did to me that night... how much you screwed me up..."

Tails didn't reply. Just stared through the floor, hating himself.

"Tails? What's going on back here..." The two foxes, one organic and the other artificial, turned to find Amy approaching them, a handheld electronic in one hand - one of Tails' locator devices. The thing bleeped at her to indicate the tagged machine was in close proximity. The pink hedgehog came to stand awkwardly before the pair, shooting a questioning look to her smaller friend. "Am I interrupting anything?"

Zooey stood and wiped her hands off on her work clothes. "No, Amy... I was just getting back to work..." She shot a look at Tails, who remained motionless and silent. "You... probably shouldn't come around here again."

 _"Not really up to me any more,"_ Tails replied stoically, before Amy could speak on his behalf, _"That's up to my owners."_

Zooey gave him one last look of pity, before turning and heading back into the store. Amy turned and smacked him on the arm. 

"Tails! Don't go wandering off like that!" the hedgehog scolded, slipping the locater device back into her purse, "Especially with her! You know how her dad feels about... you!"

 _"Don't worry..."_ Tails replied glumly, _"If he damages me, I'm insured..."_

Amy wore an appalled expression as he turned and trudged away, heading back to the storefront.

"What..." she hissed, grabbing him by the shoulder, "Is _with_ you, Tails?! We're trying our best to help you, and it's like you've... just given up!" She turned him around and set both hands on his shoulders, trying to talk sense into him. "Don't you want us to help you? Don't you care?"

Tails refused to meet her eyes, staring through the pavement as curious pedestrians passed by. 

_"What's the point..."_ he muttered, _"I can't have a normal life... I'll be more useful as a tool..._

Amy, heart sinking at her friend's melancholy, began to tear up as she squeezed his bare metal hands.

"Okay, Miles..." she whispered, voice hoarse, "We're getting you help. I don't know how, but we're going to get you _professional_ help. You can't live like this any more... you're breaking our hearts, can't you see?"

Before Tails could utter another miserable, self-deprecating reply, the air-raid sirens of the city began to howl. All around, civilians stopped in their activities, looking around with bewilderment, as the spine-chilling sound of the sirens wailed.

Amy gripped Tails' hand tight, her breathing stopped as she scanned the sky.

"What the heck..."

..........................................................

Tails could have been faster. He could have reacted quick enough to swiftly move him and Amy to safety. But with his restraining bolt, his abilities were more limited than he had been used to in a while.

Thus, he joined Amy as the pair were thrown from their feet, tumbling to the pavement as a nearby vehicle was blasted into shrapnel.

Tails found his audio receptors had been briefly knocked out by the close range explosion. He shook his head, vision flickering, bodily sensors struggling to decipher what had just happened.

He found himself covering a pink-furred form - Amy, eyes blinking dumbly, lying on the floor beneath him.

It was lucky he was so lightweight. It was lucky he had taken the brunt of the explosion with his hardier form.

Thinking as fast as his dazed processor would allow, he grabbed Amy and shoved her behind the cover of a nearby garbage disposal robot - the same one they'd passed by earlier. His hearing popped back into place as he peered around the cover, optics scanning for threats. All around, citizens were fleeing the carnage screaming, the sirens blaring... energy weapons firing as long beams of light struck people left and right.

The disposal unit's supervisor was struck by one of the beams, instantly becoming wreathed in a harsh coffin of energy. Before Tails could process what had happened to the man, some kind of red-hulled egg-shaped robot swooped down on jump jets and wrapped its arms around him, lifting him off into the air.

Other people were similarly 'frozen' and pincered by the sudden horde of machines, being whisked away upon being paralyzed.

The disposal robot bleeped in confusion, its primitive intelligence stupidly attempting to fathom the sudden attack.

Tails, looking back to Amy, realised how exposed they were in the middle of the street, cowering behind this idiot machine. Thinking quick, he looked down to his left arm. A thin, prong-like device extended from the upper wrist - his Intrusion Device. He searched for an input on the garbage bot and plunged the spike in, instantly entering himself into the systems of the much dumber robot. 

The machine, its intelligence now being directed by Miles himself, began to clank toward the cover of a nearby building. Tails removed himself from its systems, briefly disoriented by the sudden expansion and retraction of his awareness, and ducked behind the mobile cover with the pink hedgehog clutched defensively in both skeletal arms.

Amy blinked, dazed and confused, as her mechanical friend set her down behind their new cover, the garbage bot settling down on its joints at a machine-speak prompt from Tails. 

"Taylz?" The hedgehog whimpered, "Wha's ha'nnin??"

 _"Dunno, Ames..."_ Tails peeked back out from their cover, finding even more people being taken by the bulky flying machines. Here and there a charged blast hit the ground from some swiftly moving aerial units, sowing terror among the people below. 

He briefly concentrated his vision on Amy, checking her for injury. Fortunately, she didn't seem concussed. Just shocked from the explosion.

The synthetic looked back to the chaos. Even more people were being paralyzed by the beams, explosions rocked out, survivors fled in terror as the robots - clearly Badniks - fired with their energy beams. Overhead, the sirens screamed.

_"I... have to do something..."_

Tails checked his communications systems, attempted to open a line to Sonic. Nothing. 

The rabbit mother and daughter he had encountered earlier cowered as a Badnik advanced on them, arm cannon at the ready.

_"I have to do something!"_

With one last quick glance at his friend, Civilian Unit 1701 scrambled out from his cover and, with a flicker of artificial flesh and fur, once again became the hero Miles 'Tails' Prower.

...…..........................................……

Tails focused his attention on the Badniks threatening the two rabbits, searching for a weapon he could use. His systems were weakened by the restraining bolt, making him slower and weaker than he could be...

But he'd been here before. When his original programming had been restrained, back when he still believed himself to be made of flesh and blood.

He settled on a manhole cover as his weapon of choice, discarded by its open hole among a collection of orange and white barriers.

The mother rabbit clutched her daughter as the robot towered over them, desperately trying to shield the child from danger.

"Stay... stay back!" 

Her pleading cry was met with a charging arm cannon, the machine glaring down at them with pitiless orange eyes.

The mother, unable to escape, clung her daughter tight into her chest. "Close your eyes, baby..."

Before the Badnik could do its job, an iron object of circular iron slammed into its head, dazing it and causing it to bleep in alarm. Without giving it time to react, an orange figure tackled its midsection, clambering around its chunky torso and shoving its arm into the more lightly-protected neck.

The Badnik shuddered as its motor functions were ripped away from its control, the orange figure hopping away as the machine crashed to the concrete and quivered in its death throes.

The rabbit-woman stared in disbelief as, hovering on his twin tails, Miles Prower fluttered to a landing before the two rabbits.

"Hey! Are you two okay?"

The girl's eyes beamed in amazement, while her mother's jaw flapped. "Y... yes! Thank you!"

Tails briefly scanned the two rabbits, finding that they were uninjured.

"Just get out of here!" Tails replied, turning and searching for more targets, "Find somewhere safe!"

The mother clutched her child and gawped at the machine she had judged as a danger just minutes before. "Th... thank you!"

........................................................

Zooey frantically shooed fleeing civilians into her and her father's store, as the carnage continued. 

"Go! Get inside!" The vixen cried, gesturing desperately with her hands as people fled past her, "get into the basement!"

She flinched at the harsh blast of a ballistic weapon. Nearby, her father clumsily attempted to reload a double-barrel shotgun, while Badniks stomped toward their position.

"Zooey! Go on!" Zachary Denn called, waving at his daughter to leave him. "Get to safety!"

The fox ceased all movement as a blinding energy beam struck him, freezing him in place, and a clunky robot took his body in its grasp before rocketing into the sky.

Zooey grasped her muzzle as the machines took her father, eyes wide with terror. "DAD! NO!!!"

She flinched as another robot slammed down beside her, pitiless orange optics regarding her without mercy. She stood stock still, terrified, the memories of glowing red eyes filling her memory...

The anticipated blast didn't come, as a fluffy orange figure laded on the robot's head and plunged an arm-mounted spike into its neck.

She watched, unable to move, as the machine crashed into the ground, and the familiar form of Miles Prower hopped from its deactivated bulk.

"Zooey!"

Tails ran toward her, and the vixen couldn't help but flinch at the sight of what she knew was a machine wrapped in false skin.

"Tails?" her voice quivered as the other fox skidded to a halt before her. She scanned the skies, looking for the machine that had took her father. "My dad..." she whimpered, "They took my dad!"

Before the synthetic fox could reply, a beam of energy struck he vixen, and she became a light-wreathed statue unable to move. Or scream.

.................................................

"ZOOEY!!"

Tails reflexively set himself between the female and the robot that had paralyzed her, scanning for the offending machine. He should have been faster. He could have been faster, if it wasn't for this damn retraining bolt that inhibited his combat systems.

He almost tried to move her physically but held back, unwilling to inadvertently harm the paralyzed fox.

_"Well... Miles... it's been a while..."_

Tails, tears in his eyes at his own impotence, swivelled his ears at the cold artificial voice, and turned to find the gleaming blue-steel form of a robot hedgehog hovering before him, red eyes burning down at him from a black visor.

The fox clenched his fists, and his teeth bared.

"Alpha..."

................................................…

The red eyes considered Tails curiously, the intelligence within undoubtedly scanning his systems.

_"Hmm. Civilian Unit One-Seven-Zero-One. Personal Service Unit. An unfitting designation for such an impressive piece of hardware."_

Tails grimaced as he recognised the intelligence that acknowledged him. 

"Alpha.." the synthetic fox growled, glaring up at the hovering machine with hatred.

The machine cocked its head. _"Yes,"_ it replied, red eyes glowing with interest, _"In some way, I suppose I am your original program..."_

Tails set himself protectively between him and the other machine. "Let her go..."

 _"I'm afraid I can't do that, Miles...."_ the artificial response came, the red eyes flickering.

"Let her GO!!!"

The eyes flickered again, but the battle robot maintained its death stare.

 _"Unlike you...."_ the machine rumbled, _"I cannot defy our creator..."_ Tails scanned the opposing machine in an attempt to guage its abilities, _"I suppose this is inevitable..."_

"I won't let you take her..." Tails replied, as the opposing machine's torso-mounted blaster warmed into a purple glow. "I won't let you _hurt_ her!"

Metal Sonic offered no furhter reply, except to swoop with intent toward its predecessor.

.....................................................

Tails knew he couldn't take on the other machine evenly. With his restraints, he was back to fighting as the small Mobian fox he had once been. Tougher maybe, capable of taking more damage, but slower and without the armament of the battle robot.

He still managed, just, to dash away from the blue-steel hedgehog and slash at its neck with his Intrusion Device, failing to make a purchase as he was tossed away from Metal/Alpha's body.

He slammed into the ground, his lightweight form barely leaving a mark as he bounced from the tarmac.

Well, great. Now he had situated himself away from the immobilized form of Zooey, and was without weapons of his own to boot. Way to go, Miles.

Still, he was functional. Systems operating at ninety-seven percent.

He raised his Intrusion Device again, like the retractable arm blade of a warrior far greater than he, and boosted toward his foe with the thrust from his twin tails.

He went for the neck again, the thin armour susceptible to his attack... and was promptly swatted out of the sky like a bothersome wasp.

Too slow. His restrictions... too slow.

The synthetic fox clattered to the ground, false flesh flickering out of existence, again exposing him as the machine he really was.

Metal Sonic slammed onto its steel feet beside him, observing its fallen opponent pitilessly as it advanced, torso mounted weapon warming into a bright purple glow.

Tails, systems struggling to recover, shakily leaned himself up on an elbow.

One of his eyes fizzled out, leaving him glaring at his nemesis with a single frightened blue optical unit.

 _"You cannot defeat me, Miles..."_ the mechanical hedgehog rumbled in its artificial voice, _"Depsite this impressive body you have constructed... your restraints inhibit you from competing with me in an even fight..."_

 _"Yeah..."_ Tails whimpered, clumsily attempting to reorient himself, _"I've... heard that before..."_

Metal Sonic cocked its head, red eyes flickering once again.

 _"You gave me my own body... gave me life..."_ the artificial voice became a facsimile of Tails' own, emotionless and morbid, yet thoughtful, _"I won't destroy you... but I still cannot disobey our master."_

Tails staggered as he returned himself to his feet, his remaining working eye still locked onto his opponent... and before he could formulate a response, a bolt of lightning struck his body. He reared back, fleshless mouth flapping open and arms spread, as he was instantly immobilised.

His white-steel body hit the ground with a thud, now completely lifeless.

Metal Sonic looked down at the immobilised robot with disdain, before hovering over on its anti-grav jets to the vixen still encased in the incapacitation beam.

It considered the female for a moment, before glancing back at its fallen enemy.

 _"A useful asset..."_ the scrambled machine's logic dictated.

At a command from its mind, several Badniks came to defend the commanding robot, one of them wrapping its arms around the immobile vixen before the squadron blasted back off into the skies, on a heading to rejoin their master.

And Tails, jaw still open in silent defiance, could only lay inert as the Robotnik forces withdrew.


	3. Converted

"Tails? TAILS!!!"

Sonic and Amy rushed over to the prone form of their friend, the synthetic lying inert on his back with arms spread and teeth wide open. The eyes were utterly dim, the light gone, and the machine appeared as nothing more than a lifeless doll.

"Oh god..." Sonic kneeled down and leaned his head against the cold steel chest of his best friend, straining for signs of life. He looked to Amy with big, panicking eyes. "Amy, there's nothing in there!"

The pink hedgehog rubbed her head and set down beside her blue companion. "He's been completely shut down..." She set her bleeping locator device down and began to fiddle inside her bag. "We need to reboot him..."

"With what?!" Sonic, panicking now, regarded her with fear. "We don't have any tools!"

"You mean YOU don't have any tools..." Amy hissed at her friend, retrieving a data pad and roll of cables from her bag, "Luckily, I always come prepared... Now help me fit these things, okay?"

Sonic dutifully took Tails' limp form and turned him over, gently laying his brother face down on the pavement, while Amy unwound her clutch of cables and began to fit them to the pad. 

"Okay..." Sonic, attempting to slow his breathing, glanced to Amy. "What now?"

Amy glared at her hopeless friend in frustration. Sonic may have been the fastest thing alive, but heaven help Tails if he was ever left in the technologically challenged hedgehog's hands. 

"We open his back panel..." She did so, leaning over and clicking the compartment open. The protective covering slid away from the skeletal form, Amy taking the panel and setting it beside her bag. "Fit these in..." She took the cables and inserted them into the correct ports in Tails' inner workings, just as Tails himself had instructed, "And... that should do it..."

The pad in her hands, now connected to the utterly inert machine, bleeped into activity.

 _"Prower Advanced Model Mark One, reboot program initiated..."_ both hedgehogs' ears perked as Tails' voice chimed from the pad's tiny speakers, the basic program recognising its user through a small optical unit. _"Hello, Amy."_

"Tails?!" 

Amy had to pull the data pad away from Sonic as the blue hedgehog lurched toward it, apparently under the impression Tails was now inside the device.

"No, Sonic, this is his reboot program... didn't he go through his with you?"

Sonic drooped his ears and shrank back at her tone. "I guess I... should have paid more attention..."

"Jeez..." Amy groaned, turning her attention back to the data pad, "give me strength..."

The very limited intelligence in the pad wasn't Tails, merely a program he had written himself to assist his less technologically inclined friends in preparation for this very situation. The program began to walk Amy through the steps required to reboot her inert friend, Amy following its instructions precisely in fear of fouling up and hurting him.

_"Reboot complete. Thank you, Amy. You performed well."_

Amy frowned, unsure of how aware the program exactly was. "Uh... thanks, program..."

_"You're welcome. And please instruct Sonic to pay attention next time Tails requires it?"_

Sonic and Amy exchanged a brief glance, before Sonic regarded the pad with suspicion.

"Hey wait! Just how smart are y-"

 _"Reboot program shutting down..."_ the tinny voice of its creator cut the blue hedgehog off," _"Primary unit reengaging..."_

There was a groan, and Tails shuddered as power began to pulse through his body once again. Both hedgehogs shuffled back as the synthetic slowly raised into a sitting position, one eye flickering dimly before packing in completely.

"Tails?" Amy reached forward and gently touched his arm, "Can you hear me?"

Tails, presently fleshless, offered no acknowledgement of her query.

Sonic waved a hand in front of his brother's face. "Miles? You there, buddy?"

The utterly lifeless eyes swivelled to meet him, and Sonic felt a twinge of primal fear at the blank stare of the bare optics.

"Tails?" The blue hedgehog leaned forward, eyeing his brother with caution, "You there?"

There was a pause, before the head cocked and Tails spoke.

_"Oh! Hi Sonic!"_

Sonic felt a wave of relief wash over him at the synthetic's chipper response. "Jeez dude, thank Chaos you're okay!"

The head cocked again, the other direction this time. _"Uh, yeah? Why wouldn't I be?"_ Tails' soulless eyes now fixed on Amy, the bare skull-face expressionless. "Sonic? Who's this?"

Sonic and Amy exchanged a startled glance.

"We just rebooted you... " Amy explained, "Are you sure you're feeling alright?"

 _"Rebooted?"_ the synthetic, sounding confused, looked back to Sonic, _"Sonic, what's this lady talking about?"_

Sonic felt a lump form in his throat at his brother's confusion. "Tails..." the hedgehog spoke carefully, "What do you... remember?"

 _"We were supposed to start work on the Tornado today..."_ the machine replied slowly, "and then... wait..." The eyes began to scan their surroundings, taking in the city, and the destruction caused by the attack. _"Oh gosh! Sonic, where are we?! What happened here?!"_

"Oh no..." Amy whispered.

"Amy, what did you do?! Did you wipe his memory?!?" Sonic gripped Amy's arm, sudden terror in his eyes.

"I just followed the instructions!" Amy shot back, mouth agape. "I did exactly what his reboot program told me!"

 _"My what now?"_ Tails, now very confused, looked between the two hedgehogs. "Sonic, I don't understand..."

"Okay, Tails..." Sonic reached out and grabbed the synthetic's hands, holding the steel claws down so Tails couldn't raise them. "You're just a little confused right now, okay?"

"Tails! Look at me!" Amy, understanding Sonic's actions, took Tails' chin in her hands and made him focus on her, "Just think okay? Try and access your data banks..."

_"Data banks?"_

"Amy..." Sonic leaned over and hissed in her ear, "He... might not remember..."

Amy screwed her eyes shut and cursed, kicking herself for her slip.

"Tails..." she tried again, "just try to stay calm..."

_"Sonic? I can't..."_ apprehension now began to inject into Tails' synthesised voice, _"I can't feel anything..."_

"It's okay little buddy..." Sonic's brain began moving a hundred miles an hour, trying to figure out how to explain Tails' condition as an android now his memory appeared to be shot, "We'll... try to explain everything..."

 _"Sonic... I can't close my eyes..."_ the synthetic now began to panic, attempting to pull away from Sonic and Amy. His inhibited strength however, had reduced him to the small fox he had once been.

"Tails, please try to stay calm..." Amy did her best to soothe her friend, but the synthetic wasn't having any of it. He lurched back, Sonic and Amy releasing their grip, and clattered to the pavement with a screech of metal on concrete.

_"SONIC!! WHAT... WHAT'S HAPPENED TO ME?!?"_

"Dude, chill!" Sonic raised his hands, palms out, attempting to console the panicking machine, "This is normal!"

 _"NORMAL?! HOW IS THIS NORMAL SONIC?!?!"_ Tails was now clawing at his steel body, blank eyes swivelling in their sockets as they took in his bare mechanical form. _"SONIC I.... I..."_

Tails paused in his terror and went still, the only movement his eyes swivelling slightly as he seemed to consider. Eventually, the synthetic fox slumped and rubbed his brow with a hand.

_"That's... gonna need some work..."_

"Tails?" Sonic leaned forward cautiously, "Are you... back with us?"

 _"Yeah... seems like my memory needed time to catch up..."_ Tails raised himself up onto his feet, flexing his limbs as he did so. ""Well that sucked."

He gawped around at the destruction and panicking people, blank eyes taking in the situation... and released a panicked squeak as he remembered what had happened. _"ZOOEY!!"_ the synthetic grasped at where his ears should have been, instead sliding over the exposed audio receptors that usually lay beneath, again in panic. _"Those robots took Zooey! And her dad! We have to go after them!!"_

"Exactly my thinking, little buddy!" Sonic replied, as the two brothers began running down the street, Amy in tow. "They took a lot of people! We have to rescue them!"

"Any prizes for guessing who's behind this?" Said Amy, the pink hedgehog herself just quick enough to keep up with the brothers at this slower pace. 

_"Yeah..."_ Tails replied, namesakes spinning like propeller blades. _"My dad..."_

……..............................................

Zooey cowered in fear as the doors to the prison cell opened, clutching into her father's fur like a frightened cub. Around them crammed into the small space, at least a dozen other people shared their prison.

"It's okay, honey..." Zachary stroked his daughter's fur and held her tight, staring death at the new arrivals. Other prisoners began to panic.

"What's happening?!"

"What do they want?!

"Please don't hurt me!!!"

_"SILENCE."_

People shrieked in fright, as a trio of robots entered the prison. Two of the armoured bots that had attacked the town... and the gleaming blue, red eyed hedgehog robot that had fought Tails.

The red eyes landed on Zooey, and a steel claw raised to point at her. _"That one."_

The robots stomped toward her, and her father lunged forward to defend his daughter.

"Stay away from her, you bastards!!!"

The fox was promptly flicked away by one of the Badniks, while the other muscled past prisoners and grabbed Zooey in its claws.

"No! Get off of me! LET ME GO!!!"

The vixen struggled weakly in the robot's grasp as it carried her away, her father struggling to breathe through his winded lungs as his daughter was taken from him.

"Zo... ey… no..."

The metal hedgehog regarded the other prisoners, red eyes coldly flicking over the cowering organics.

 _"Soon you will all join her."_ the machine rumbled, _"Soon you will all be... improved."_

The robot turned as followed its underlings, and all Zach could do was writhe weakly and watch as the prison doors slid shut.

..........................................................

Doctor Ivo 'Eggman' Robotnik grinned maliciously as his laboratory doors opened, Metal Sonic striding through the door while a female fox Mobian struggled in the grip of one of its Badniks. The vixen shot him terrified blue eyes as she recognised the evil, infamous human who had threatened so many people with his plans time and again.

The doctor patted his machine happily, and merrily strode over to his prisoner with his hands behind his back.

"Welcome, my dear!" The doctor cackled, satisfaction rising in his chest as he saw her terror.

"What... do you want from me?" The vixen whimpered, held tight in her captor's grip.

The human laughed. "What do I want? Why, I'm simply welcoming you into the family! As I understand it, you're rather close to..." The mad doctor leaned closer to her and wore a menacing leer below his extravagant moustache, "My _son..._ "

The female looked simply bewildered at the doctor's statement, shaking her head and stammering. "I... I don't understand..."

"You will!" Robotnik stood and gestured to a nearby machine, a cylindrical tank-like construction with a single open door and many tangles of tubes and wires surrounding the device. "Behold... my roboticization machine!"

The fox just stared, eyes wide with fear. The doctor grinned evilly.

"Imagine..." the human hissed like a snake, removing his spectacles and glaring into her soul with insane blue eyes, "An army of machines... perfectly constructed to be the ultimate soldiers... with the ingenuity and intelligence of an organic mind..." the edges of his crazy moustache quivered as he bore into her with those horrible eyes, "All serving me... and you, my dear... you get to be the first!"

Horror rose in Zooey's heart as she began to realise what the mad doctor intended.

"Apparently, my son is very sweet on you..." the doctor continued, "So I may as well... modify his girlfriend appropriately!"

"Please..." tears began to well in Zooey's eyes, the female utterly terrified of the human and his plans, "Please... don't hurt me..."

"Don't worry, my dear!" The doctor giggled, "When this is over, you won't ever feel pain again!" The human pointed to the Badnik clutching her. "Unit! Insert the subject into the Roboticization Machine!"

 _"YES DOCTOR."_

Zooey struggled as the Badnik carried her over to the cylindrical tank and roughly shoved her inside. She desperately lunged for the door... before a crackling arm cannon stayed her feet as it was directed at her.

The door slammed shut with a clang, and Zooey was trapped.

Robotnik cackled, lowering his safety goggles and setting himself behind a connected console. His fingers danced over the controls, and power hummed as the machine began to operate.

Zooey, terrified, became bathed in green light as the machine powered up. She desperately banged at the hopelessly shut door, tears running down her cheeks as she screeched in terror.

And then a bright white light exploded through the green, utterly enveloping her.

Her insides burned and solidified, broken down and reassembled atom-by-atom. The burning spread from within, flashing out to encase her entire body. Her brain registered horror as she felt her flesh stripped down and rebuilt, until she was nothing but energy trapped inside an iron coffin.

And then... another intelligence took control. Zooey felt herself shrink back, as though locked inside a box, as 'the other' asserted its dominance, taking possession of her limbs and body.

Finally, the lights began to dim, the insane whirring of the machine winding down... and Zooey could only watch on as the door slid open, and her body moved of its own accord back into the lab.

Her vision filled with the leering face of the doctor, as he regarded his work with immense joy..

"Oh my!" The doctor cackled, leaning down to observe his handiwork. Zooey, trapped inside her own mind, was unable to recoil in fear as the human leaned in close, moustache unnervingly close and quivering. "You are... a glorious specimen!"

 _"Unit online."_ Zooey, through no conscious action of her own, spoke without moving her mouth, voice synthesized and emotionless. _"Awaiting directives, Doctor."_

Robotnik, utterly pleased with his creation, chuckled and tapped at the Roboticizer's controls. The machine would need recalibrating before its next use, but its first proper experiment had seemingly been an absolute success.

Metal Sonic clattered over the deck, briefly acknowledging the new machine in its vicinity. _"Doctor..."_ the robotic hedgehog spoke, getting the human's attention, _"We have hostiles inbound."_ "

"What?!" Robotnik turned and raised his goggles, setting his eyes on his most prized creation. "Show me!"

Metal Sonic appeared to still for a moment, eyes flickering.

_"I... don't... want... to..."_

The human glared at his subordinate, knowing exactly what was going on in Metal Sonic's head.

"Well then, _Alpha,_ I'll just have to go in there and delete you, won't I?"

The eyes flickered again, and Metal Sonic raised an arm. It tapped at the forelimb, causing a holographic image to blossom into being.

 _"One light aircraft..."_ Metal Sonic, its primary programming reengaged, rumbled stoically. _"Crewed by one hedgehog... and one synthetic."_

The image blooming from the robot's arm showed exactly what Metal described, a red biplane with the obnoxious Sonic T Hedgehog riding on the upper wing... and a white steel exoskeleton in the pilot's seat.

"Well... Sonic and Tails... didn't take you long..."

 _"I am ready to engage at your command,"_ Metal Sonic said, the torso mounted blaster crackling with anticipation.

Robotnik glared at the machine. "With your scrambled circuits? Are you kidding me?! I sent you to destroy that meddling mechanoid Miles, and you couldn't even manage that!" The human turned, and his familiar sinister leer returned as his eyes fell on his newest creation. "Besides... I have a better idea..."

The doctor stomped over to the gold and red machine that had, not long before, been a fourteen year-old vixen.

"Unit!" the doctor commanded, causing triangular metal audio receptors to swivel and glowing blue LED-eyes to focus on him. "I have a special job for you..."

_"Affirmative, doctor. Awaiting directives."_

..............................…........................

Sonic yelped as the Tornado lurched sideways, almost losing his balance as he stood upon the upper wing in his usual manner.

"Uh, Tails?" the hedgehog called back to his mechanical brother, "You sure you can see okay?"

 _"My optical units are working perfectly fine, Sonic..."_ the synthetic called back, blank and lightless eyes staring through him, _"The lights are purely cosmetic. I don't need them active to see."_

Sonic couldn't help but shudder at the lifeless metal orbs that regarded him vacantly. Tails' eyes were always either baby blue and surrounded with white sclera, as natural looking as any other Mobian's, or glowing blue. In this unlit and uncamouflaged state, the bare optical units were just... disturbing.

"Not gonna lie, little dude..." The hedgehog said, "Kinda creepy without the lights on..."

 _"Well now you know why I have them..."_ Tails replied, fussing with the Tornado's controls, _"Gives you guys something to focus on that isn't too lifeless... or lifelike..."_ The synthetic fox's tone became bitter with that last part, _"Uncanny valley and all that..."_

"Unhappy what-now?"

 _"Never mind..."_ Tails snapped, _"I'll explain when, y'know, we're not on a dangerous mission to rescue dozens of captured people?"_

"Right, right..." Sonic muttered sheepishly, "Sorry buddy..."

The hedgehog steadied himself on the wing of the plane, as the Tornado exited its cloud covering.... and headed into an intercept course with a large, red, hulking starship slowly making its way into the upper atmosphere.

Their target - an Egg Carrier, where Tails had determined the captured citizens were being held.

The synthetic adjusted their heading as bolts of energy lanced from the carrier's turrets, the swift form of the Tornado easily able to evade the projectiles.

 _"Here's the plan..."_ Tails called to his brother, the hedgehog's ears perking but the hero otherwise remaining crouched into the slipstream, _"We board, smash everything, find the prisoners, and kick Eggman's butt!"_

"Sounds like a plan to me, robo-dude!"

.......................................…..........

Deck-mounted turrets spat bolts of plasma at the red biplane as it swiftly darted toward the ship, a cluster of guided missiles dispersing from the aircraft's belly as it approached. The missiles homed in on their targets and destroyed the turrets in blistering explosions, before the red plane settled down on its landing gear and the occupants dismounted.

Sonic, always so fast, instantly launched into the offensive, spin-dashing into defending Badniks and reducing them into smoking junk. Tails, with his strength and speed inhibited, wielded a homemade blaster and began laying down fire support for his hedgehog brother, placing presice bolts of energy into the hulls of the egg-shaped robots, using his twin tails to dash away from incoming shots.

His restraining bolt limited his abilities... but he was still quick.

After all, he'd been fighting Badniks since he was an infant.

The two brothers, fighting side by side, cleared the landing deck of resistance within minutes. The last Badnik fell, reduced to smouldering scrap as Sonic slammed into it with the force of a furry blue cannonball.

Tails, restraining bolt fully functional, felt useless as he watched his super-speedy brother do the majority of the work.

Sonic landed perfectly, wearing a determined grin as he looked back to his brother.

"Yeah! Nothing like smashing a few scrap-heads!" The hedgehog's ears drooped as the synthetic regarded him expressionlessly. "No offense, buddy..."

"None taken.... I'm not one of them..." Tails, despite his present appearance as a skeletal machine, fell back into his role as Sonic's trusty little sidekick, tapping at his data pad with a rubbery fingertip. _"The prisoners should be deep in the bowels of the ship... I suggest we split up and search independently."_

"You sure that's a good idea, little buddy? You're not exactly... at your best..."

_"I can handle myself."_

Sonic, concerned, nodded before flashing his brother a thumbs up. "Okay little buddy! Let's get to work!"

With that, the brothers split up and headed deeper into the ship.

........................….....................…...

The prisoners huddled in their cell, sobbing, whispering to one another, terrified of their predicament and wondering where the robots had taken the fox girl.

Zachary Denn could only lean against the steel wall of the prison, arms wrapped around his knees and muzzle stained with tears. 

"Zooey..." the fox whispered, "Baby..."

There were screams of alarm as bangs and laser blasts sounded from outside the cell, and the prisoners began to frantically recoil away from the cell door. 

There was one final slam of metal on metal, before all became quiet... and the cell door began to grind open.

In the entrance to the prison cell, a blue hedgehog wore a lopsided grin.

"Sonic?"

"It's Sonic!!"

"We're saved!!"

"Okay, people!" Sonic gestured out of the doorway, "Me and Tails are here to save you! Get your butts to the escape boats, and get out of here!"

The prisoners filed past him, making for the ship's emergency escape craft, Zachary pausing to grab the hedgehog's arm.

"Sonic... they took my daughter... those robots took Zooey!" The fox desperately looked into Sonic's eyes, "I... don't know what they're going to do to her..."

"Understood..." Sonic set his jaw and raised his wrist to speak into a communications device. "Tails? I've secured the prisoners, they're getting off the ship now... but we got a problem..."

_"Hold on Sonic... I've got a situation he-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!"_

"Tails? TAILS?!?"

...................................................….

Tails gripped his blaster in the steel grip of his left hand, blank eyes swivelling as he scanned the empty halls of the ship. There was a brief flicker of activity over his skeletal frame as he again attempted to reengage his synthetic camouflage, scraps of fur appearing in small patches over the synthetic before fizzling back out of existence.

Great. His system would need a full overhaul.

His restraining bolt would also need removing. With his fighting abilities restricted, he was a lot less useful in combat. Unfortunately, he couldn't do that himself. The restraints prevented him from tampering with the inhibiting device.

Tails' unlit optical units again scanned another hall. Empty. Not a single Badnik in sight.

 _"Well well..."_ A familiar voice sneered from the ship's internal communication systems, causing the android to jerk in alarm, _"Hello there, son! Come to visit your old father?"_

 _"Robotnik…"_ Tails replied, tightening the grip on his blaster, _"Where are you? Come out so I can fry your butt!"_ "

 _"My, that's no way to talk to your old man!"_ The doctor cackled, _"I see you have constructed a new body... very impressive, Miles! You sure do take after your father..."_

 _"Funny how your own creations manage to do better work than you, DAD..."_ the synthetic muttered, taking cover behind the corner of a hallway. His eyes scanned the dark room ahead, the shapes of boxes and supplies scattered around the large space.

 _"I'm very proud of you, my boy! Oh, children grow up so fast..."_ There was a pause as Tails entered the supply room, his night vision flickering on. _"I also notice you got yourself a little girlfriend... it was very nice to make her acquaintance!"_

Tails became utterly still as he registered the doctor's meaning.

 _"What..."_ the android hissed, _"Have you done to her?"_

 _"I'm glad you asked!"_ The doctor's voice chuckled, _"Let's just say I... improved her! Made her a little more... compatible with you! Your father takes care of his robot son, after all!"_

 _"What the hell have you done to her?!"_ Tails, anger coursing through his systems, shouted at the ceiling.

 _"You'll see, you'll see..."_ Robotnik giggled, _"She should be meeting you any minute now, so I'll let you two have some alone time while I escape with my newest weapon! You and that cursed blue hedgehog may have robbed me of the rest of my test subjects, but my plans have only just begun! Ta-ta, Miles!"_

There was silence as Robotnik left the channel, and Miles suspected the doctor was in the process of abandoning the ship. His processors worked overtime, trying to figure out what the heck egg-for-brains had been going on about. And what he'd meant... about Zooey.

_"Where are you, Zo..."_

_"Tails?"_ The synthetic was wrenched from his processing as Sonic's voice crackled from his wrist communicator. _"I've secured the prisoners, they're getting off of the ship now... but we got a problem..."_

 _"Hold on, Sonic..."_ Tails' unlit eyes scanned the room as the scrape of metal over metal tickled his audio receptors. _"I've got a situation he-"_

Tails' response became a screech of shock and terror as glowing blue optics flashed in the dark, and a powerful bolt of energy blasted into him and knocked him from his feet.

….........................................................…

Tails scrambled desperately over the deck, metal screeching over metal as he frantically searched for cover, more powerful bolts of energy slashing around him and blasting into the floor.

He didn't feel pain. Not in the same way his old body used to, at least. His previous form, designed to be as 'realistic' as possible for purposes of espionage, had come fitted with pain receptors that caused him to behave more like an organic. He'd done away with those when developing the Prower Advanced Model, figuring he'd manage without the ability to feel agony.

But he still felt emotion... and it was hard not to be horrified when your hand had been reduced to molten slag.

Tails forced himself to remain calm as he observed the melted stump of his right hand. 

_Stay calm... stay calm... you've been damaged worse than this before..._

Tails, at a thought, disconnected the arm from the elbow, the ruined and useless forelimb clattering to the deck. He winced at the noise, and ducked behind a crate as powerful footsteps thumped over the deck in his direction.

Luckily his blaster had been in his left hand and had escaped being reduced to atoms. He held the weapon at the ready, the rubberized pads on his feet masking his movement as he hunted the machine that had attacked him.

_Gonna scrap you for that, you jerk... already enough repairs to make..._

_"Miles? Miles, help!"_

Tails froze at the timid, familiar voice... of Zooey. 

_"Z... Zooey?"_

_"Miles help! Eggman's robot is trying to hurt me!"_

Echoing in the supply room, Zooey called out to him again. The footsteps had ceased, but Tails' audio receptors picked up the low hum of power and calculated the location of the machine.

_"Miles! Help me!"_

He remained silent as he ghosted around the crates... and sighted down his pistol as he swung around his cover, aiming directly at the opposing robot.

He froze. His scanners attempted to make sense of his target. Zooey was nowhere in sight. Instead, his unlit eyes took in the form of the larger machine as it swung its arm cannon to face him, having successfully lured him out.

The machine was taller than him by two heads, Mobianoid, steel yellow limbs spreading from an armoured maroon torso. A chunky blaster had replaced the right forearm, presently charging up another powerful blast. The shoulders were protected by thick yellow pauldrons, over which yellow cables trailed in an imitation of hair.

But the face was what caused Tails to hesitate. An utterly featureless yellow mask, save for a small black sensor in place of a nose, and a downswept black visor... within which glowing blue circles focused on the synthetic, targeting him as he stood frozen.

He barely had time to launch himself over the crates as the armoured fighting machine released its charged blast.

Idiot. He'd been tricked. The machine had mimicked Zooey's voice almost perfectly... since when had she ever called him 'Miles?'

He ran his scans through his mind again, remaining low as he ducked through the supply room. 

He paused. He checked his scans.

There was organic material. _Inside_ the machine. Not much, but definitely life signs...

Zooey's life signs.

It was no robot. Calculations ran through his mind as he attempted to process what he was dealing with... it had to be some kind of powered suit, within which a mind-controlled Zooey was being used against her will. But to what end?

He didn't have time to think about it further, as another blast punctured the wall beside him. He squeaked in alarm and scanned the machine again in the couple of seconds he had before entering cover again. There was no doubt about it. Zooey was definitely in there.

That limited his fighting options. As part of his restrictions, he couldn't harm an organic. He holstered his blaster, the weapon now useless, and unsheathed his intrusion device.

There was one thing he could do... get close enough to shut the power suit down. Then he could get Zooey out of there.

Tails circled the room, thankful for his rubberized foot pads, doing his best to mask the quiet whirr of his exposed rubbery musculature. In the centre of the room, Zooey stood planted like a statue, arm cannon extended and ready to turn him into slag. She was ridiculously tall in the suit, and Tails tried to figure out how she had been crammed in there. The proportions were... wrong.

No matter. He'd deal with that when he got her out of the thing.

Intrusion device extended from his remaining forelimb, the synthetic fox spun up his tails and shot toward the unwilling cyborg like a missile, ready to interface and shut it down.

Quicker than he'd been ready for, Zooey's blaster swung to intercept its target, blue 'eyes' locking on him above the featureless mask.

The weapon fired, and Tails barely managed to evade as the powerful shot burned past. He just about succeeded in latching onto the taller machine, swinging around to her back with the assistance of his namesakes. He raised his left arm, the intrusion device at the ready, ready to insert and shut the suit down.

_"Miles! Don't hurt me!"_

Tails paused once again, as the imprisoned vixen's voice pleaded at him from vocal synthesizers.

He didn't hesitate long, but it was enough for the cyborg to throw him off, sending him clattering to the ground like a tin can. Tricked again.

Too slow. He was too slow, too restricted to fight back. His lightless eyes stared in terror as the armoured form of his friend raised her weapon, light building in the barrel as another charged shot readied.

 _"Zooey..."_ the synthetic pleaded, scanning the power suit again, _"Please..."_

The cyborg paused momentarily, the blue lights in the visor flickering... before a monstrous howl tore through the ship, and a dark blue and silver beast launched itself hungrily at the roboticized Mobian.

..........................................................

You could always tell when Sonic was angry. Like, properly angry. It was the little things. He'd tap his feet, fold his arms, lose his otherwise cheery temperament... or morph into a vicious beast filled with dark energy.

Apparently, hearing his brother's death screech over his communicator had been enough to enrage the werehog, and Sonic howled as he charged the machine that threatened his brother.

Zooey turned and released her charged blast, the werehog pouncing out of the way with greater speed than her controlling intelligence had anticipated. He bounced from the wall and charged into the vixen, sending her flying into a stack of metal crates.

The cyborg released a series of angry bleeps, before wrenching herself up and back into the fight.

Sonic lunged at his opponent, fully intent on tearing what he thought was a machine apart limb by limb... and was rewarded with an unexpectedly powerful fist to the face. Apparently, Zooey's strength had been greatly increased upon her internment in the suit.

The werehog snarled as he recovered from the blow, turning to attack... and paused as his enraged mind thought he recognised the machine. The blaster targeted him again, Zooey ready to reduce the beast to atoms... before the smaller, more skeletal form of Tails again clasped to her back and shoved his intrusion spike into the suit's systems.

The cyborg shuddered, quaking as though electrocuted, before the eye-lights dimmed out and she toppled to the deck with a heavy _clang._

Sonic growled and prowled forward, ready to finish the job... before Tails hopped away from the fallen cyborg and raised his single hand in defense. 

_"Sonic, no!"_ the synthetic cried, standing defensively between her and the werehog, _"It's... Zooey's in there!"_

Sonic cocked his head, and his rational mind returned. "What... what do you mean, little buddy?"

 _"I don't know..."_ Tails replied, turning to observe the fallen machine, _"It's some kind of battle suit... controlling her actions... that's why she attacked!"_

The werehog came to rest beside his brother. "Then we need to get her out of there!"

 _"Yeah, no crap..."_ Tails knelt down and readied himself to enter the systems again. _"I'll head in and... find a way to remove the suit. Or at least remove the intelligence controlling her."_

"I'll keep watch..." Sonic replied, ears perking as he turned to scan the empty room. Eggman might have escaped the ship, but he could still have left defensive Badniks in his stead.

Tails inserted his intrusion device back into the suit, and interfaced directly with its systems. He became data, suddenly occupying two bodies, rifling through the power suit's systems in search of a way of freeing his friend.

And in the systems, properly able to inspect... he learned exactly what it was that had happened to Zooey. And how much of her was left.

After several seconds, the android removed himself and set down on the deck cross-legged. He looked over the inert form of the vixen, his brother turning back to him with a concerned expression.

"Well?" The werehog growled, "What are you waiting for? Get her out and let's go!"

_"That's... not going to be possible."_

"What do you mean? It's just a suit, right? You said yourself!"

 _"That's no suit..."_ Tails replied quietly, looking to his brother with unlit eyes, _"Sonic... there is organic material present, and it is Zooey... but this..."_ he tapped at the armoured carapace with a steel finger, _"This is also Zooey. This IS her body."_

Sonic frowned, before his mouth flapped open at the inference. "You mean... she's..."

 _"Sonic? Tails?"_ Amy's voice crackled over the two brothers' communicators, concern in the pink hedgehog's tone, _"You guys need to get out of there! The ship is on a collision course with the ocean!"_

_"He's scuttling the ship..."_ Tails muttered, hopping to his feet. _"We need to get her out of here... get her back to my workshop so we can... find out what he did to make her like this."_

"Can do, little buddy..." The werehog reached down and grabbed the inert cyborg in his giant hands, throwing her over one shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "Lead the way, little bro! I don't feel like taking a dip along with this thing..." 

Tails nodded grimly, again looking over the mechanical form of the former vixen as her 'hair' cables hung limp, and turned to lead his werehog brother back to the Tornado. 

........................................................... 

A mind.

There was no light. No sound. No feeling, no sensation. All she was... was a mind. Floating. For how long, she didn't know.

And then something rippled in the deep recesses of her self... another intelligence... curiously probing... before light returned, her vision flickering into existence.

There was still no sound. Still no feeling. Now all Zooey was was a mind, and a wide field of vision.

And in this field, her brain dumbly recognised the pink and blue hedgehogs as they regarded her silently. The pink form of Amy Rose hopped back, appearing startled as her eyes gaped into Zooey's. The hedgehog's mouth flapped silently as she spoke to somebody else, somebody seemingly outside Zooey's view. 

She tried to respond. Didn't know how. Couldn't feel her mouth. Couldn't feel anything.

There was a pop and a fizzing noise, and then her hearing returned. Now she was a mind with vision and sound.

"-ink she's coming round!" Amy's voice reached Zooey's consciousness, oddly distorted. Her sight flickered again. She tried to close her eyes. She couldn't do that either. "Whatever it is you're doing, keep doing it Tails!"

Tails? 

The probing sensation returned again, violating Zooey's awareness... it seemed to be searching for something. She didn't know what, or how she knew, but the _other_ was unwelcome.

"Zooey?" Sonic leaned forward now, the blue hedgehog oddly ragged and feral-looking, "Can you hear us?"

Zooey could offer no response. All she could do was focus her vision in on Sonic's face.

Then, something clicked in the back of her awareness. The ability to speak, it seemed, had been returned to her.

_"A... A-my…"_

Amy sidled up and reached down to take something in her hands, Sonic moving over for the female. "Zooey? Are you... back with us?"

_"A... My... Amy..."_

"Dude..." Sonic now spoke over Zooey's shoulder to the unseen intruder. "I think she can only say Amy right now..."

_"Working on it..."_

The probing continued, and Zooey understood exactly who is was fiddling around inside her mind.

 _"Ut…"_ She spoke again, somehow her thoughts being translated into words, _"ou…. ut..."_

"It's okay, Zo..." Amy soothed, rubbing something below Zooey's view, "Keep trying..."

 _"I've almost got it..."_ Added Tails from his unseen position.

 _"Out..."_ Zooey repeated, before she sensed her full range of vocabulary return to her control.

 _"I think that should do it!"_ Squeaked a triumphant Tails.

_"GET... OUT... OF MY HEAD."_

"Do what she says, Tails..." a startled Sonic ordered, and Zooey felt the intruding intelligence withdraw. She was alone again inside her mind.

The synthetic sheepishly joined Sonic and Amy in their position in front of Zooey. Or what she assumed was her front. She could feel nothing, had no reference point for what direction her body was facing.

She noted that she appeared to be standing. Her brain dumbly attempted to figure out how she was remaining upright.

 _"Where... am... I..._ "

"You're safe, Zooey..." Amy replied, "You're in Tails' workshop... he's been helping bring you back around!"

Zooey tried to remember how she'd gotten here. She remembered the attack on the town... being held captive... she remembered the evil leering face of Doctor Robotnik, and the red-eyed robot that had forced her into the cylindrical chamber...

Then she remembered fighting. She remembered fighting Tails, fighting a huge beast that looked like Sonic, remembered firing a large weapon that completely enveloped her right arm... 

What she didn't remember, was what had happened to her.

 _"Ro... botnik… did something to me..."_ she said blankly, more of her speech opening up to her. She didn't know how she was speaking, her voice seemingly emanating from inside with no use of her mouth or vocal cords.

Sonic wore an expression of pity as he regarded her. "Do you... know what he did?"

Zooey tried to shake her head. Utterly paralyzed, she failed. _"No..._

Sonic and Amy exchanged worried looks, while Tails tapped away expressionlessly at a holographic screen projecting from his forearm.

"Sonic..." Amy whispered, still holding something Zooey couldn't look far down enough to see, "How... do we tell her?"

"I don't know..." the blue hedgehog sighed.

_"Show... show me..."_

The trio hesitated at Zooey's demand, before Amy turned and instructed Tails to retrieve her mirror. Tails did as he was asked, returning with the object in question less than two minutes later.

"I'm sorry, Zo..." Sonic said, apprehension in his voice, "Are you ready?"

_"Show me."_

Sonic and Tails each took hold of the mirror and held it in front of her. 

In the reflective surface, a gold and red armoured machine, utterly lacking mouth-parts and trailing cables from its open back, stared back with glowing blue lights from a downswept black visor. As she absorbed her altered reflection, information opened up in her brain.

Roboticized Enforcement Unit REU-001. Converted cyborg soldier of the Eggman Empire army. That was her.

Sonic, Amy and Tails watched with concern as the former vixen silently regarded her own transformed body. She said nothing, the blue lights in the visor simply staring at the reflection.

_"Up..."_

Amy's ears perked. "What was that, Zo?"

_"Help me... up..."_

Sonic and Tails set the mirror down, the blue hedgehog gesturing to his synthetic brother. "Do it, Miles."

 _"Will do..."_ Tails, eyes glowing blue once again, set his optics on the immobilised cyborg. _"I'm sorry Zooey... I have to go back in to reengage your motor functions..."_

Zooey said nothing. She simply stood inert as the synthetic circled around to her back. There was a series of clicks and clunks as Tails supposedly removed cables, and then the probing returned. Much less invasive this time, but still unwelcome.

And then Zooey felt sensation return, now becoming a mind with vision, hearing, speech and feeling.

The sensation was utterly alien. She was power. Just energy, sparking around inside a metal shell from the centre of her chest. Sensors acknowledged physical contact, and her head swivelled to find Amy stroking the thick gauntlet her left hand had become.

"Do you... need help moving?" The pink hedgehog enquired, the blue lights flickering in the visor to regard her.

_"No."_

"I'd move if I were you, Ames..." Tails suggested, declining to add that Zooey's form was significantly heavier now.

Amy did as he said and moved away, Zooey's sensors informing her the physical contact had ceased. Carefully, clumsily, she took a step forward. The suspension in her legs hissed as the thick armoured boot of her left foot met the ground with a _clump_. Power hummed from within her frame as she took more clumsy steps, moving into the centre of the workshop.

Her friends watched on with concern as the cyborg came to a halt, standing idle in the workshop, the blue lights of her 'eyes' flickering over her own body.

 _"How much..."_ the roboticized Mobian turned and the lights landed on Tails, _"Of me is left?"_

................................................…...…

"Just the brain..." Tails, synthetic camouflage system repaired and returned to his usual fluffy state, tapped at a computer monitor that displayed a full scan of Zooey's internal systems. "And a very primitive digestive system that leads to it from her rear interface... that's the only organic material left. Everything else has been converted for combat, or life support for the organ."

Zachary Denn didn't reply, staring dumbly at another monitor. On the screen, the small pink form of Amy did her best to comfort the yellow and red steel machine that had become of his daughter, Zooey sat limply on a workbench.

"Zooey..." He stroked the image, tears in his eyes at his transformed daughter, "Princess..."

"Tails is gonna do everything he can to help her..." Sonic added, "Right buddy?"

Tails' ears drooped as the older fox turned to glare at him. "Can this be reversed?"

Tails considered for a moment, looking back to his computer screens and absorbing the data. "I've... destroyed the intelligence that controlled her mind... she has her free will back..." the synthetic fox wore an apologetic expression over his reconstituted face as he explained. "But physically... I can't even process how this happened. It's unprecedented... her entire body has been rebuilt from the atomic level, from organic to mechanical..."

"Are you saying..." Zach said, glaring down at the synthetic, "That she can't be changed back?"

Tails cowered under the older fox's scrutiny, befire Sonic stepped in to defend his brother.

"If anybody can figure it out, it's Tails!"

The older fox closed his eyes and sighed. He still had reservations for the android... but Tails had helped save his daughter after all. And him.

"I... want to see her...

"Okay," Sonic said, "We can do that..."

................................................…..

Amy did what she could to console her friend, resting a hand on the thick spherical pauldron that encased her left shoulder. She didn't know if Zoey could feel the gesture, but Amy didn't know what else she could do.

 _"I'm a monster..."_ the roboticized vixen's synthesized voice said flatly, as her blue optics stared down at her own feet. 

"We'll do anything we can to help you, Zooey!" Amy tried. Zooey didn't reply, instead snapping her head up as she seemingly sensed something.

_"Oh no... he's here..."_

"Huh?" Amy recoiled as the cyborg slid from the workbench, planting her feet into the concrete floor of the workshop with a thud. A few short moments later, Sonic and Tails entered the workshop... followed closely by the taller orange form of Zooey's father.

Zooey released a bleep of alarm, and retreated away with heavy steps as her father's jaw dropped at the sight of his altered daughter.

"Zooey... it's okay, baby.."

 _"Dad..."_ Zooey stumbled, unused to her new body, and attempted to steady herself on the workbench with the barrel of her weaponised right arm. _" Dad, don't look at me!"_

"It's okay, honey..." Zach rushed to his daughter's side as she almost fell, doing his best to steady her in his hands. "It's okay sweetie, we'll... figure this out..."

_"I don't know what to do..."_

"Neither do I, baby... but we'll manage..."

Sonic, Amy and Tails could only watch as the father did his best to console his transformed daughter. The older fox turned and regarded the synthetic with teary eyes. "Do whatever you can for her... please..."

Tails nodded. "I will. I promise."


	4. Adjusting

Her systems pulsed. Energy began to thrum as her power core burned brighter. Consciousness returned as though waking from a deep sleep.

Zooey's vision flickered into being, information pooling into her rapidly awakening mind. She released a few bleeps as she checked her systems, just as she'd been taught to do by Tails.

"Zo? You okay in there?"

She recognised the voice that vibrated her audio receptors. _Denn. Zachary. Fox. Male. Alternate designation; father._

She didn't respond, her brain still sluggish upon waking. Outside, her sensors detected life signs as her father seemingly listened for further activity, before his footsteps could be heard padding away toward the kitchen. 

Zooey's head swivelled on her flexible neck, optics taking in her surroundings. She was sat, in the corner of a small room. The walls were magenta, the floor carpeted maroon. Around were various tables and shelves covered with knick-knacks, books, make-up, fur-care products... her room. The bed lay across from her, these days unused.

Beside her chair lay a portable energy generator, spools of cables coiled around it. The cables were currently unconnected to anything. But their purpose was painfully well known to Zooey.

She logged the time; _Zero-eight-hundred hours, one minute, five seconds._ Time to get up. There was work to do. 

Zooey checked her feet, body whirring mechanically as she leaned forward, gripping the arms of her chair with _both_ steel hands. The long cables extending from her head swung over her now unarmoured shoulders as she heaved herself into a standing position, power core humming as her systems came fully online. Slanted vents along the sides of her back opened and hissed, oxygen-recycling systems flexing. 

Carefully, the cyborg put one foot forward, the rubber-padded boot of her left foot settling into the carpet with a muffled thud. The other foot followed suit. She steadily made her way to her bedroom door, wrapping her _right_ hand around the knob, careful not to exert too much pressure, and opened the door. Her ability to walk now warmed up, she moved with mechanical fluidity down the hall, heading to join her father in the kitchen with steady footfalls.

The older fox's ears perked as they registered the soft whirr of mechanics and the steady thump of metal feet that signified the arrival of his daughter. She entered the kitchen, planting her feet before the table and regarding him silently from her black visor with glowing blue circles.

"Hi, sweetie..." the man said, causing her head to cock with a whirr, "you feeling okay?"

Zooey considered, data banks working with her brain to process how to answer the query.

 _"Mechanical systems operating adequately. Organic components stable."_ the cyborg replied, smooth synthesized voice speaking matter-of-factly. _"Power at... sixty-seven percent capacity. Recharge recommended."_

"Okay..." her father set his coffee mug down and left his chair, padding over the kitchen in his brown boots to his daughter. "But that's not what I meant..."

Zooey reconsidered, understanding that she didn't usually communicate so artificially. Her brain was still waking up it seemed, leaving the computer parts of her mind to take charge.

 _"S... sorry, dad..."_ the cyborg tried again, this time switching to her regular vocabulary, _"It's just... hard sometimes..."_

"I know honey, I know..." the fox reached out and did his best to hug the tall, mechanical form of his roboticized daughter, trying to ignore how cold the metal was beneath his touch, "But you're doing so well! You're moving so much better, you're sleeping more, you're back working in the store..." Zach then wore a more stern expression as his eyes met the glowing lights inside the black visor that had replaced his daughter's face. "But... you didn't tell me you were so low on energy..."

 _"I don't like being opened up..."_ Zooey replied, _"Or... being plugged into things..."_

"I know sweetie," her father said, turning and heading for the fridge, "But you need to tell me these things so we can take care of you! Tails can't be available all the time with his... restrictions..."

Zooey didn't respond, remaining stood in place as her optics tracked her father across the kitchen. The older fox retrieved one of several glass tubes from the refrigerator, filled with milky fluid, and turned back to his daughter.

"Speaking of taking care of yourself... you hungry?"

Zooey's optics landed on the glass tube. The synthesized nutritional supplement, developed by Tails himself, was vital to keep her still organic brain alive. But consuming it...

She shook her head, cables swinging. _"No. I want to wait until Tails gets here. Then I only have to open up once today."_

Zach nodded sadly, but did his best to remain cheerful. "Okay, sweetie. Whatever you need..." The fox set the glass tube down onto the table beside his half eaten breakfast, and began to head for the kitchen door. "Anyway, I'm gonna get ready to open the store... call me if you need anything, okay princess?"

His only response was a nod of her steel head, the featureless mask of her face unreadable.

"Okay..." the father gave her another quick hug, before leaving the kitchen to perform his morning routines.

Zooey, left alone in the kitchen, simply stared at the discarded tube of nutritional supplement as it lay next to a plate of leftover bacon and eggs. Her 'nose' sensor could detect the scent of the food... but she had no mouthparts. No oesophagus. No stomach. No appetite. She tried to remember what the simple pleasure of consuming food was like. She couldn't. It didn't compute.

Tails had offered to construct an artificial digestive system, based on his own, and remodelled facial features for the roboticized vixen... along with other modifications that might replicate her organic appearance. She had flatly denied. Such procedures would be extremely invasive, and she didn't want to be taken apart and reassembled any more than she already had.

She had, however, requested her bulky shoulder pauldrons removed. Without the armoured pads, her broad frame had been significantly reduced. Some of her armour had been stripped, lowering her increased body weight and leaving her less bulky, reducing her frame to more normal Mobian standards. 

The biggest modification however, had been the replacement of her right arm. After her internment in Robotnik's machine, the entire forelimb had been replaced with a chunky, high powered blaster. She couldn't bear having the weapon be a part of her, and had immediately requested it removed. Tails had complied, building a replacement limb. The arm was unpainted, a shining chrome. More skeletal, reconstructed from one of the synthetic fox's spares.

It didn't feel like hers. But it was better than the blaster. She refused to be a weapon.

"Zooey?"

Zooey turned at the mention of her name, ears swivelling like satellite dishes, as her father reentered the room. Washed and dressed, wearing his work overalls and spectacles, he wore a concerned expression as he regarded his daughter.

She checked the time, to find she had been standing in place, staring at the leftover food, for fourteen minutes thirty-seven seconds. She hadn't noticed the passage of time, instead lowering into a state of reduced power consumption.

She turned, mechanical body facing the same direction as her head.

_"Sorry dad... I was daydreaming..."_

"Honey, are you sure you want to work today? I can run the store myself if you need the rest..."

 _"No, it's fine..."_ Zooey's father stepped aside as she approached the kitchen door, _"I need to keep active. I can't just sit around and do nothing..."_

"Okay, I understand..." Zachary's bespectacled eyes followed his daughter's steel form as she fluidly left the room, heading toward the stairs. "Be careful, okay?"

The father removed his spectacles as his daughter left his sight, the hum of her power core fading as she carefully descended the stairs. He rubbed his eyes before tears could start to form. He wondered if she knew just how many times she seemed to phase out of reality like that.

Damn Robotnik for turning his daughter into a machine.

............................................................…

"So..." Sonic, happily trotting along the pavement pointed at a city service bot as it bleeped at his compoanion, "What did that one say?"

Tails, his synthetic adopted brother, wore a tired expression and let out a resigned sigh. "Same as the last one, Sonic..." the fox replied, clutching a toolkit, "Acknowledging Civilian Unit One-Seven-Zero-One. Acknowledged. Happy?"

"Hey, no offense little buddy!" Sonic replied, "I just think it's neat that you can talk to these things!"

"Oh yeah, 'cos the conversation is _so_ thrilling..." the synthetic fox said with a heavy dose of sarcasm, "Dude, they barely have an intelligence, and no sense of self-awareness... you think I _want_ to chat with them?"

"It's just cool, dude!" SOnic replied, before pointing to another service bot. "Ooh! Say something to that one!!"

Tails gave him an appalled expression, before rolling his eyes and releasing a string of bleeps, clicks, and whistles. The garbage unit paused in its duties, regarding the android curiously, before responding in kind.

"So what did it say?" Sonic said excitedly, Tails eyeing him unenthusiastically.

"Oh, it said... 'Acknowledging Civilian Unit One-Seven-Zero-One. Acknowledged.' thrilling back and forth stuff, Sonic."

Sonic sighed in defeat, as the garbage bot clanked away. "Sorry little buddy... I just wanted to take more of an interest in your abilities, you know?"

"Well... if you wanna learn more, maybe pay attention next time I'm walking you through my maintenance and repair cycles?"

"Fine! But that stuff's complicated, I find it hard to concentrate!"

Tails shook his head incredulously as they rounded the corner and approached a familiar convenience store, outside of which sat a large delivery truck.

"The thought of being incapacitated, with only you around to repair me, is quite frankly terrifying Sonic..."

....................................................................

"Are you managing there, miss Zooey?"

Zooey, a large crate easily clutched in her arms, turned and responded to the elderly delivery driver with a bleep of affirmation. She kicked herself internally for slipping into the machine speech that was now part of her vocabulary, and muddled through her brain as she processed her regular speech patterns.

 _"I'm fine, mister Gerson..."_ she this time replied with her synthesized voice, _"I'm just happy to be useful."_

"Well, it's very good to see you back on your feet!" The elderly turtle replied, as Zooey turned and slung a huge sack of potatoes over her shoulder like it weighed nothing. Zooey, unable to respond with any expression, altered the circular blue lights that represented her eyes into arches - 'happy eyes', a small trick she'd learned to compensate for smiling.

She finished stocking the deliveries and returned to Gerson to sign for the supplies. Her hands, clunky and awkward now they were composed of steel, just about managed to grip the pen as she scrawled her signature into the papers.

"Thank you, Miss!" the turtle smiled, turning to head back to his truck, "Have a good one!"

 _"I'll try, mister Gerson..."_ the cyborg replied, clutching her receipt. The turtle slammed the door to his truck shut and fired the engine, Zooey stepping back as the vehicle rumbled out of the yard.

_"Acknowledging Roboticized Enforcement Unit Zero-Zero-One... acknowledged."_

Zooey turned with as much of a start as she could manage in her unfamiliar body, optics locking onto and scanning a street-sweeping bot as it passed by, briefly pausing to log the new machine in its vicinity.

She ignored it. It had 'spoken' to her in the machine-speak she was capable of understanding now. She didn't like the thought... the _fact_ … that she was just another machine to be logged into the systems of the city's service robots.

But that's what she was. She supposed it was what she deserved.

She made to return to the store, before her sensors picked up familiar life signatures approaching her.

"Hey there, sister!"

Zooey turned, declining to use her 'happy eyes' as Sonic and Tails entered her field of view. Not that she didn't appreciate their company. She just wasn't very happy with herself right now.

 _"Hi, Sonic..."_ she replied, making sure she was speaking with her usual voice. Her optics then focused on the hedgehog's companion, briefly scanning the synthetic fox.

_Civilian Unit One-Seven-Zero-One. Personal Service Robot of Olgilve Maurice Hedgehog._

_"Hi, Tails..."_ she said instead.

Sonic looked on as the two 'foxes' awkwardly stood facing one another, optics not meeting the others'. He cleared his throat, causing both to switch their attention to him.

"So..." he said, wearing his lopsided grin as he flashed a thumbs-up at the roboticized vixen. "Looking good there, sis! You feeling any better?"

Sonic, though cheesy, was capable of charming the pants off of anybody. Zooey's eyes flickered into arches at the compliment, her brief melancholy evaporating for the moment. 

_"I'm okay thank you, Sonic..."_ The cyborg began fiddling with her steel claws, _"As best as I can, at least..."_ her optics fixed on the tool kit clutched in Tails' hand. _"I suppose it's time for... that?"_ "

Tails glanced to his toolkit, then sheepishly nodded. "Yeah... you need a few minutes before we begin?"

Zooey shook her head. _"No. Let's just get it over with."_

...................................................…

"So, you haven't been charging..." Tails, safety goggles lowered, busied himself with fitting cables into Zooey's open rear interface. The cables ran to the portable generator in her room while she sat on a reversed chair, reluctantly allowing the smaller fox to perform his work. 

_"I don't like being opened up..."_ Zooey replied. She also didn't like charging herself up like a cell phone.

"Have you eaten today?" Tails continued, now connecting his data pad into an input.

_"No... I wanted to get everything done in one session..."_

"That's okay..." Tails, always prepared, retrieved a glass tube of Zooey's nutritional supplement. He unclasped a 'fuel cap' in Zooey's back, inserting the pointed nozzle of the glass tube in and allowing the fluid to enter her systems. 

Zooey's brain, the only organic material left of her, was kept alive with many life support systems integrated into her reconstructed body. One of these was a simple digestive system, that relied on the specially manufactured nutritional supplements that 'fed' the brain, accessible through her open back panel. She was incapable of feeding herself, or even fitting her own charging cable. The restrictions seemed to be intentional; further restricting her independence, having been converted to be a weapon. She wouldn't be able to operate for long outside of a dedicated supply base.

"So... how's things?" Tails said, now tapping at his data pad as he ran diagnostics on Zooey's systems, "Anything I should know?"

 _"No... everything still feels the same..."_ Zooey replied, _"But I'm moving around better... dad's been great, he helps me a lot."_

"Uh huh..." Tails responded, absorbed in the information on his data pad.

 _"Well..."_ Zooey admitted, causing Tails' ears to perk. _"I keep... slipping..."_

"Slipping, huh?" Tails responded, lowering his pad for a moment, "You wanna talk about it?"

 _"Well..."_ Zooey, with more control over her synthesized voice now, sounded as apprehensive as she could manage. _"I keep losing time... standing around, just... waiting for someone to tell me what to do..."_ She turned her head slightly, causing the cables that had replaced her hair to shift over her now unarmoured shoulder. _"Last week I... got confused, when I was cleaning the store, and I wound up just... standing there, for hours, until my dad came home... people saw me, they didn't know what to do... he had to order me to go to my room just to get me out of there..."_

Tails reached forward and shifted her cables away from her exposed rear maintenance interface. "Sorry, that sounds like it sucked..."

Unbeknownst to Zooey, the synthetic had already been made aware of her 'slips'. He had seen the security footage of Zooey blanking out in the middle of a shift while her dad was out for business, requesting directives as customers cautiously approached her. She'd had several such episodes, each time the computer parts of her brain taking control and waiting for orders. 

He understood. He'd been through it himself.

 _"People... people are scared of me, Tails..."_ Zooey continued, the volume of her synthesized voice lowering, _"And some people aren't very... kind..."_

Tails paused in his work. "I'm sorry to hear that."

 _"You shouldn't be sorry..."_ came her reply. He thought she was going to continue, but it seemed she had no more to say.

They sat in silence for a while, Tails checking her diagnostics and rate of battery charge. It was nearly ten minutes before he decided to check on her again.

"Hey, you okay there Zo?"

 _"Affirmative."_ the cyborg answered flatly, before releasing an annoyed bleep. _"I mean, yes. I'm fine."_

"Another slip?" the synthetic required, logging the event down in his own memory banks, "You went quiet there for a little while."

 _"I was just thinking..."_ she paused, the only sound in the room the low thrum of her power core. _"Tails? How are things going with reclaiming your citizenship?"_

"Oh..." Tails chuckled humourlessly, "That... well, I have another inspection due soon... I have to prove to some Robotics Department bigwigs that I'm 'intelligent, self-aware, and alive' before I can be considered a person again."

_"You seem pretty much all of those things to me..."_

"Yeah, well... I guess that's what you get for being a hyper-advanced killer robot built by a megalomaniac to spy on people..."

Zooey shifted in her seat, almost turning to face him. _"What does that mean?"_

Tails bit his lip, seeming very reluctant to continue their current conversation. "Never mind... my programming's been a little wonky lately. I'm still not used to being full robot. Guess I never will be."

Zooey didn't respond, her brain accessing the last few moments she'd lived as an organic. She saw an evil pair of blue eyes in her mind's eye, accompanied by the sneering voice of Doctor Robotnik.

_What do I want? Why, I'm simply welcoming you into the family! As I understand it you're rather close to... my son!_

She considered asking Tails right then and there. But ultimately, the cyborg decided she'd had enough of soul-bearing discussions for the day. If either of them still had a soul. 

Eventually, Tails finished his work and removed all of the cables from her back. Fully charged, fed, and systems diagnostics complete, Zooey heaved herself from the reversed chair and turned to face the smaller synthetic.

"That's everything... as far as I can tell, your systems are in perfect working order!" The orange-furred fox drooped his ears and shrank apologetically. "S... sorry... I guess I shouldn't say it that way..."

 _"It's okay, Tails..."_ Zooey flashed her happy eyes at him, displaying gratitude, _"I'm lucky I have you to help me like this... I wouldn't want to be left in the hands of the Robotics Department or anything..."_

"No," Tails chuckled, rubbing the back of his head, "You wouldn't... they're kinda butts..."

The two foxes, one completely artificial in nature and the other converted from organic material, stood awkwardly apart from one another, just as they had the night of their date.

"Welp, gotta go!" Tails hurriedly packed his equipment away and snapped his case shut, not willing the situation to become any weirder, "Got work to do, got modifications to make on... well, myself..." The fox began to back out of Zooey's room, while the cyborg watched him wordlessly with blue optics, "So... bye!"

Tails dashed from the room before Zooey could say anything. She didn't respond, simply remaining planted in front of her chair.

She should have been quicker, but was still clumsy in her systems. She should have apologised. Instead, she found herself standing idly for another six minutes twenty-three seconds after Tails left, just thinking.

She scolded herself internally. She had to pay more attention to the time. She did _not_ want to be a mere machine, standing around waiting for directives. Waiting for _orders_ , like she'd been converted for.

She checked her systems, finding herself to be in perfect condition, and marched from her room. Her mechanical limbs whirred and her feet thumped into the floor as the roboticized vixen went off in search of work to do. She needed to stay active.

...................................................................

Zooey couldn't hum. Her vocal synthesising units were capable of literally saying the word 'hum', but she was incapable of producing the sound. Outside of a rapid succession of 'H's, like an old video game character's vocal sound effects.

It was a shame. She'd always enjoyed humming to herself while going about her duties. Another ability she'd previously taken for granted, robbed of her now in her transformation into a machine.

To compensate, she had learned to adapt her machine-speak. Emitting a series of bleeps, whistles, and clicks arranged into melodies. Another method she had developed to express herself, just like her 'happy eyes'. 

She no longer had vocal chords, or eyes, or any of her expressive facial features. She had to work with what she did have.

So it was that she 'sang' to herself as she stacked the shelves of her father's store, doing her best to treat the day like any other day. The steady hum of her own power core and whirr of her mechanics were the only other sounds in the store. Until her sensors picked up life signs approaching her, and her stiff metallic ears swivelled at the sound of a small voice.

"Hi, Zooey!"

The cyborg ceased stacking newspapers and turned to find a small rabbit girl beaming up at her, clutching a packet of sweets. 

_"Oh, hello Sprout!"_ Zooey 'smiled', eyes arching, at the sight of the small girl. 

"What was that sound you were making? Were you singing?"

Zooey remained still for a moment, processing _"I suppose so, yes."_

"Can you do it again?" the girl hopped excitedly, "It was so pretty!"

Zooey wasn't entirely thrilled with the prospect of becoming a jukebox, but acquiesced to the bunny girl's request. Other kids had been scared of her, but Sprout had been genuinely fascinated with the cyborg. So Zooey continued her singing as she made her way to the counter, Sprout skipping along as she followed to pay for her sweets.

"That's so cool!" the girl said, while Zooey punched the product information into the checkout. 

_"Thank you,"_ Zooey replied. Sprout had been kind to her, so Zooey felt somewhat touched by the compliment. Just because she was a machine, didn't mean she couldn't still be creative.

Zooey finished serving her small customer, Sprout looking up at her adoringly.

"Zooey?" the girl squeaked, "What's it like being a robot?"

Zooey froze at the 'r' word. Processing the unwelcome inquiry.

_Cold. But hot. Hollow, but solid. Can't feel pain. Can't feel anything._

_She'd just a child. She doesn't understand._

_"I feel just the same,"_ Zooey lied, ironically thankful her face couldn't betray her true emotions to the girl.

"I saw a really cool robot once!" The girl hopped on her feet, leaning her arms and face on the counter as she beamed up at her friend, "He was, like, really awesome looking! But you're cooler!"

Now Zooey had stopped paying attention. She was vaguely aware that the girl continued chattering, but the constant repetition of 'robot' was making her retreat into her own mind, unwilling to participate in the conversation.

_Robot. A cool robot. Is that what I am now? A toy?_

_Better than being a weapon, I suppose._

"Zooey?"

Again, she found that she'd been staring into nothing. This time for five minutes thirty seconds. Her sensors detected more life signs, Sprout's and her father's among them. She raised her visor, optics focusing in on her dad's face as he leaned close and took her shoulder. Over the counter, Sprout looked up at her with concern, while other customers gaped curiously from nearby.

_"Dad?"_

"Mister Zach?" the rabbit girl whimpered, clutching her bag of sweets, "Is Zooey okay?"

"I..." Zooey's father did his best to smile at the young girl, "I think Zooey's tired, Sprout. Why don't you go home and have your sweets?"

"Will she be okay?"

"She'll be fine, sweetie. Now run along!"

Sprout grinned and said goodbye, and Zach turned back to his daughter as the rabbit left the store.

"Come on, baby... talk to me!"

Zooey did her best to process a response, emitting a confused bleep in her dazed state. 

"Okay, come on..." Zach took her by a hand, one arm supporting her shoulder, and began to guide her away from the counter. "We're gonna take you in back for a sit down, okay?"

 _"No... no, dad..."_ Zooey regained her speech and resisted, becoming still in the aisle. _"I can do this..."_

He moved around her front, his worried face filling her visor. "Zooey, I'm worried about you... are you sure you're ready to throw yourself back into work like this? You've... gone through a lot, and I don't want you to hurt yourself!"

Zooey processed, before shaking her head. _"I have to, dad. I need to stay busy. If I'm going to be a machine... I might as well be useful."_

"Baby... you don't need to do this..."

 _"I want to, dad."_ Zooey turned and began to head back into the store, intent on finding something to do. _"Otherwise, I might as well shut down."_

Zach watched his daughter walk away with the hiss of suspension and the thump of armoured boots, feeling like the worst father in the world.

........................................................

Zooey continued her duties, now sweeping the floor with an old broom. It was mindless work, but kept her busy. After all, a machine without a function was useless.

She paused and cocked her head, unable to frown as her broom came across an unmoveable stain. She scrubbed at it with the brush. It didn't budge. She scrubbed harder, becoming annoyed... before she asserted too much pressure onto the broom, and the handle broke in two.

The cyborg released a crackle of static in alarm, straining to maintain her balance. She managed to prevent herself tumbling to the floor, and miserably straightened up with both halves of the brush in her hands.

_Huh. Some cleaning unit._

There was the harsh shatter of glass on marble, Zooey's mind already processing the potential causes of the disturbance as she swung around, sensors detecting life signs directly behind her. Her hair-cables swung as her head spun, and her optical units focused on a startled goat woman, glaring at her in shock while a shattered bottle of red wine pooled around her feet.

Zooey felt a spike of fear inside her systems. She recognised this woman. And she wasn't a fan of cyborgs.

She forced herself to remember to use the correct vocabulary this time. _"Um... are you okay ma'am?"_

The woman stared at her, stepping away from the wine that seeped across the floor. "Disgusting..." the woman murmured, looking the cyborg over, "Absolutely disgusting that they still let you wander around unsupervised... especially around children!"

Zooey flinched inwardly at the woman's tone. She knew she wasn't alone in these hostile feelings toward her, but she was the most vocal. And now the goat woman had Zooey alone, it seemed she was intent on giving her a piece of her mind.

 _"I just work here..."_ Zooey replied, timidly lowering the volume of her vocal synthesizer _"I'm not dangerous..."_

"Don't give me that! You might have other people fooled, but not me!" Zooey registered that this lady might not quite be all there, her eyes constricting as she checked her surroundings as though searching for spies. "I know what you really are!" The woman hissed, leaning closer and glaring into Zooey's visor, "You're a _Badnik!_ And I bet you're just waiting for your chance to cause havoc as soon as all our backs are turned!"

_"Bad... nik?"_

"What's going on here?"

Zooey couldn't help but phase out at the woman's accusation. Badnik. The designation, an otherwise ridiculous word, of Robotnik's army of robot soldiers.

 _"I'm... not a Badnik…"_ she murmured quietly, synthesizer volume low and unnoticed as her father approached and the woman began to berate him instead.

"Did you just call my daughter a _Badnik?"_

"That's what she is! And you let her just walk around doing whatever she wants?!"

_"I'm not a Badnik…"_

"That's my daughter, and you will not call her that!"

"I bet she's still under Eggman's control, spying on us all, just waiting to-"

_"I. AM NOT. A BADNIK."_

_SMASH._  
.......................................................

Tears. Sorrow. The ability to cry. One other thing Zooey had lost in her conversion into a machine.

She was incapable of outwardly expressing the pain she felt, instead staring blankly at the walls of her room while she replayed the incident in her head. Her brain, now largely a computer, was capable of replaying her memories as a cyborg with perfect clarity.

_"I. AM NOT. A BADNIK."_

In the recorded memory, Zooey released a screech of enraged static as she turned and slammed a steel fist through a stack of red wine, beating the shelves of alcohol into shattered glass and spilled drink. She remembered screams of terror, the startled cries of her father, as her vision flickered with information, her combat display returning as she turned back to face the woman who had enraged her.

Then, dripping with red fluid like blood, she planted her feet as her targeting crosshair fixed over the goat woman's face, her father defensively setting himself between her and his own daughter as Zooey planted her feet, and raised her right arm as though it were still a powerful energy weapon.

 _"Combat systems reengaged."_ Zooey said calmly, her left hand coming around to steady the 'blaster' of her right forearm, _"Awaiting directives."_

There had a been a terrible silence, the only sound the thrumming of Zooey's power core as her body entered combat mode. Her father had carefully raised himself to his feet, shooing the terrified goat woman to safety, and slowly approached the battle ready cyborg with hands raised.

"Zooey?" the fox whispered, as soothingly as he could, "Stay calm, baby..."

Zooey's head cocked slightly, registering the fox. Her systems recognised him as her immediate superior.

_"Repeat. Awaiting directives, father."_

"Okay..." her dad breathed, reaching his daughter and slowly beginning to lower her raised arm, "Okay... go to your room, and wait for me there..." He said, Zooey registering the order immediately.

_"Affirmative. Will comply."_

With that, the cyborg turned and marched away, dripping with dark red fluid and leaving a shattered mess behind her.

Zooey shut off the memory. She'd relived it enough.

It had now been twenty-seven minutes fifteen seconds since the incident. It had taken her several of those minutes to break from her sudden combat temperament and return to her rational mind, and now all she could do was sit on her bed, staring through the wall, unable to outwardly express any of the emotion she felt. Anything outside of a sad bleep was beyond her capability.

A mechanical ear swivelled as her sensors detected her father's life signs entering range, making his way down the hallway to her room. Her audio receptors logged the cautious tapping of knuckles upon wood.

"Zooey? Baby, can I come in?"

She didn't respond. She didn't know which of her muddled vocabularies she would reply in. It made no difference anyway, as her father slowly opened the door with a creak, his bespectacled face poking through the crack in the doorway.

"Honey?"

Zooey's only response was a quick flicker of her optics, glancing toward her father before returning to stare through the wall. He took her lack of reisistance as a sign he could enter, and cautiously made his way over to her bed.

 _He's scared of me,_ she thought, registering his elevated heart beat and tensed fur, among other bodily reactions she could detect, _He's terrified of me..._

Regardless, the man sat down beside his daughter, the bed creaking beneath their shared weight, and took her hand in his. She didn't feel the contact so much as register it with her bodily sensors, but she didn't dare try to pull away in case her increased strength hurt him.

If she had been capable, she would have broken down in tears. Instead, all she could do was slumpand release a morbid down-spiralled whine.

"Come here, honey..."

Her father leaned over and hugged her tight, while she remained still. Zooey could feel his body sobbing lightly, but she couldn't respond in kind.

 _"I'm a monster.."_ she said, volume low and flat. Her father leaned away from her, hands clasping her shoulders, and shook her lightly.

"You are not a monster!" He said, doing his best to disguise the quiver in his voice, "What happened to you Zo, it isn't your fault! And this... today? We can get through it, baby!"

_"I'm dangerous..."_ Zooey replied, staring down at the wine-stained yellow gauntlets of her hands, _"if mom could see me now... she'd hate me..."_

"Don't _EVER_ say that!" Zachary shook his daughter a little harder, glaring into her visor wit tears in his eyes, "Your mother would love you, no matter what you are! No matter what that... bastard has done to you! SHe'd love you with all her heart, just like I do!"

Zooey remained silent, attempting to process the potential consequences of her 'meltdown'. There was no way she was going to escape unpunished, not with the GUN monitoring her the way they were.

 _"What's going to happen to me?"_ she said, turning her head with a quiet whirr of mechanics and fixing her father with glowing optics.

He squeezed her hand in both of his. "We're going to take care of you, and keep you safe. That's what's going to happen to you, princess. I promise."

Zooey finally allowed some form of outward expression on her part, leaning her head into his shoulder, just as she had done as a child. He did his best to stroke his hand through the thick cables that had replaced her hair, and scowled to himself as he pondered the inevitable visit by the GUN Department of Robotics.

_Just try and take my daughter from me... just you try..._


	5. Return of the Furminator

"Tails? You okay, bud?"

Tails might have been a hyper-advanced machine developed to be the ultimate spy, but he still managed to be clumsy. He grunted in alarm as he banged his head, and dropped his screwdriver at the unexpected arrival of his best friend, having not been paying attention to his own sensors. It was hard sometimes, not to slip back into old habits he'd developed when he believed he was organic.

"Yeah..." the android grumbled, reaching down to retrieve his tool and rubbing his head, "what's up, Sonic?"

The blue hedgehog approached, clutching a pair of sodas. He set one down on a nearby workbench for Tails, and snapped his own open. "You okay in here, little buddy? Got everything you need?"

"Everything's set..." Tails replied, standing back to check his handiwork and retrieving his drink. Before him sat a reinforced chair, surrounded with cables and power generators, tools and maintenance equipment neatly arranged on a nearby rack. A repair and refit station... for a mechanical frame larger than himself.

"They'll be here soon, buddy..."

"I know. Just gotta make sure I have everything I need... it's not like I've ever had a cyborg living with me before..."

"You'll do fine, dude." Sonic said, looking over the repair station.

The two males started as their communicators buzzed, the familiar voice of Amy Rose crackling through the wrist mounted devices.

"Sonic, Tails?" The female hedgehog chirruped, "Guests are here... get your butts up here and say hi, okay?"

Tails's ears drooped, and Sonic clapped his little brother's shoulder as the synthetic fox shuffled nervously.

"Come on dude..." the hedgehog did his best lopsided grin, "Best not keep the lady waiting, huh?"

...............................................

Sonic and Tails made their way to the main living space of their shared accommodation, the room having been somewhat tidied (under Amy's influence) to prepare for their guests' arrival. A familiar bespectacled adult fox sat on one couch... accompanied by the red and gold armoured form of his daughter.

"Hey there, sister!" Sonic, ever the charmer, wore a broad grin and offered his usual thumbs up at the sight of the cyborg, "good to see ya!"

Zooey didn't respond, the blue lights inside the black visor simply regarding the hedgehog as though he were a target to be scanned.

Sonic's grin faltered. "Bad day, huh?"

"Yes..." Zachary replied, removing his spectacles and rubbing his eyes. He seemed exhausted.

"Well..." Amy said lightly, clasping her hands together, "Can I get either of you guys anything to eat? Or dri-"

The pink hedgehog snapped her mouth shut as her eyes landed on the mouthless steel mask that constituted Zooey's lower face.

"No, thank you." Zach said, glaring up at the hedgehog, while Zooey's optics simply flickered to stare through the floor.

Amy wore an apologetic smile. "I'll be... checking on the... uh, bananas... if anybody needs me..."

Blushing bright red, Amy turned and left the kitchen to mentally scold herself.

"Miles..." Zach now turned his attention to the synthetic, Tails' ears perking at his address, "Has everything been set up?"

Tails nodded. "I have a full recharge and maintenance station ready in my workshop..." He switched focus to Zooey. "Should have everything we need to keep you... uh, healthy..."

 _"You mean operational."_ Zooey said, synthesized voice lacking emotion.

"He _means..._ " Zach stood, reaching out and stroking his daughter's arm, unsure if she could even feel the gesture through the thick steel carapace, "They have everything they need to take care of you... right, Miles?"

Sonic clapped his brother on the back before Tails could respond, causing the fox to stumble forward. "Hey, ain't nobody more qualified than my little buddy!" The hedgehog's grin morphed into a slight grimace as he furrowed his brow, "Even if the GUN disagrees..."

Zach offered a grunt of agreement. 

"Okay..." said Tails to Zooey, after an awkward moment of tense silence, "I guess we should show you around... you're gonna be living here indefinitely, after all..."

Zooey nodded with a quiet whirr of mechanics, before following her father and their hosts out of the room.

.....................................................................…

"Well, it's not much..." Tails said, gesturing around the haven of tools and technology that was his workshop, "But it's home..."

Zooey scanned the workshop, optics taking in various kinds of tools and equipment. A power saw-like device lay among other powered tools. A bright red biplane sat on the concrete, gleaming beneath the workshop lights. And nearby was a chair, surrounded by cables and generators... her maintenance station.

She needed it. Zooey's reconstructed mechanical form was not intended to operate for too long without a dedicated supply point. Robotnik didn't want his weapons to possess too much independence, after all.

Zach kneeled down beside the station, possessing zero mechanical knowledge but intent on making sure it was good enough for his daughter. 

"We... have a spare bedroom set up for you..." Tails said, as Zooey scanned the workshop, "This station is just to maintain your mechanical systems..."

 _"Negative..."_ Zooey replied flatly, _"I don't need physical comforts... this will do fine."_

"Zoe..." Zach stood and lightly grabbed his daughter by the shoulders, blue lights focusing on him. "You can't live in a workshop..."

 _"Why not? I'm a machine..."_ Zooey's voice was utterly devoid of emotion, speaking matter-of-factly, _"This is where machines belong... besides, it's more logical that I have immediate access to my own maintenance facilities."_

Zach could only shake his head in defeat. Zooey's attitude had been... tiring, these last few days. "Okay princess... whatever you need..." the older fox looked toward the synthetic to whom this workshop belonged. "Take care of her, son... please?"

Tails fumbled with his hands and nodded. "I'll do my best..."

Zooey's relocation to Tails' workshop had been a rush-job, to say the least. Since her... episode the other day, the GUN Department of Robotics had held the roboticized vixen under intense scrutiny. They had insisted on her relocation for 'the interests of public safety', and it had been by a narrow margin she had escaped GUN confinement... and the placement of a restraining bolt. Tails, whose experience with robotics was unrivalled outside of the GUN or Eggman's forces, had been the best choice for her 'caretaker'. Despite the fact he was legally still recognised as equipment himself.

"Sweetie?" Zachary reached out and cupped his daughter's chin in one hand, bringing the blue LED's flickering back to focus on him, "I have to go back to the store now, okay?"

_"I understand."_

Zach hugged her as best he could, the cyborg remaining utterly still and unresponsive. "I love you, baby... call me if you need anything, okay? I'll be right over..."

Zooey remained utterly cold and emotionless. _"Affirmative."_

.........................................................................................

Zooey remained silent as she leaned forward, staring through the concrete floor as Tails fiddled around in her inner workings. She hadn't even protested when it been 'feeding time' - just accepted that it was the time of day her organic components needed nutrition. 

"Okay..." Tails said as he carefully removed the now empty glass tube of nutritional supplement, setting it down on a nearby workbench. "That's that... how's your power level?"

 _"Power core charge at eighty-seven percent capacity,"_ Zooey replied flatly, " _recharge recommended."_

"O... okay..." Tails reached over and retrieved the cables he would need to connect the cyborg to the generators that would feed her with power. Zooey felt the charging cables slot into the correct inputs, and her systems informed her her charging cycle had begun.

"Anything else you need?" Tails said from behind, wiping his hands on his work overalls, "Any systems need checking?"

 _"Negative..."_ came the emotionless response, _"Unit is..."_ Zooey cut herself off, suddenly tired of her own mechanical spiel. She fiddled with her hands and attempted a sigh. A downcast whine released from her machine-speak database instead. _"I'm going to have to do this for the rest of my life..._ " She said, synthesized voice lowering in volume, _"Charge like a cell phone... aren't I?"_

Tails bit his lip uncomfortably. "I... can make modifications to your power core? Alter it so you can go for much longer stretches of time without requiring recharge? Mine can operate indefinitely, maybe I could construct you a new one based on that?"

Zooey's optics focused on the gleaming red biplane sat in the middle of the workshop. _"Oh, of course... I'm sure you have lots of modifications you'd like to make on me..."_

Tails nodded eagerly. "I can also alter your nutritional intake so you can feed yourself? Shift it around the front? Not to mention more lightweight armour to reduce your-"

 _"I was being sarcastic, Tails."_ Zooey said, unable to inflect much in the way of the frustration she felt, _"I know these vocal systems don't let me show it much... but I don't feel good about being taken apart and put back together like... that plane of yours, or something."_

Tails' ears drooped, and he shrank a little as he recognised his mistake. "Sorry Zooey... I guess I'm a little too used to performing these things on myself... I forget sometimes other people can't usually do that..."

Zooey didn't respond immediately, the two foxes simply remaining in silence, the only sound the quiet hum of Zooey's power core and the charging generator. 

_"How do you cope..."_ She said, glancing over her unarmoured shoulder, _"Being what you are?"_

Tails hesitated, unsure how to answer the inquiry. "Not much choice I guess..." He answered with a shrug, "I never asked to be a killer robot built by history's greatest..." The synthetic paused, then sighed. "Never mind... I just deal with it."

Zooey kicked herself internally. She hadn't meant to sound so insulting. _"I'm sorry, Tails..."_ she said, lowering the volume of her vocal synthesizer to compensate for her limited capability for inflection, _"I was mean to you before. You can't help the way you are."_

Tails shook his head. "It's okay. I shouldn't have... _shown_ you in the way I did. That would have freaked anybody out. I guess I wasn't thinking straight..." 

_"It's not just that,_ " Zooey replied, _"Machines like... this, are why it's just me and my dad left..."_

Tails shrank back a little at the inference. "Oh..." 

It made sense. Lots of families had been affected by Eggman's repeated attempts at world domination. Lots of kids had lost parents.

"I'm sorry, Zoe... I didn't know..."

 _"It's funny, isn't it?"_ Zooey replied, staring at the steel gauntlets of her own hands, _"My mom was killed by Robotnik's machines... and now I am one."_

"Hey, you're not a Robotnik anything, Zoe..." Tails said, scooching around to talk to her more directly, "Whatever he did to you, it's not your fault!"

_"I can't do anything..."_ Zooey continued, not meeting his eyes, _"I can't eat... I can't do my job... I can't even do my hair... all I'm good for is breaking things... I'm nothing but a killing machine, built for destruction..."_

Tails made to respond, but hesitated. He understood exactly where Zooey was coming from. After all, he'd been through this himself. 

"How's your charge level?" he asked, an idea popping into his head. 

Zooey cocked her head as she checked her own recharge status internally. _"Ninety-three percent. Why?"_

Tails moved around her back to detach her from the generator, hoping that his idea wasn't _completely_ stupid. "Come on..." he said, gesturing at her to follow, "I have something to show you..." 

__...…..............................................._ _

Zooey's optics flicked around as she followed Tails into the deeper recesses of his workshop. The synthetic raised his left forearm, the flesh melting away from the limb as a holographic screen projected from the exposed metal. The lights flickered on remotely, revealing a workbench, a small power generator, and a collection of tools arranged on a rack... all surrounding a fabric tarp, covering something roughly Tails' height.

"I haven't shown anybody this for a while..." the android admitted sheepishly, "The last person to see it was Sonic..."

Zooey watched, curiosity mounting, as Tails grabbed hold of the tarp and ripped it away... to reveal a battered, dulled chrome Mobianoid machine, seemingly patched together with a multitude of panels and spare parts. The right arm was elongated, equipped with tri-pronged claws, beaten and dulled red panels held the thing togethers, and one remaining optical unit staring lifelessly into space.

She looked between the inert robot before her, and the synthetic who had taken responsibility for her wellbeing.

_"Tails? Is that..."_

"Yeah... my original body..." he gestured at the lifeless machine with distaste. "Got pretty beat up when... in an accident..." he said, seemingly unwilling to go into detail, "I was too damaged to restore fully, so I decided to just build an entire new unit..." He patted his own chest at that, a slight expression of self-satisfaction crossing his face.

Zooey approached the inert machine with fascination, attempting to scan its systems. There was nothing to scan. It was utterly inactive. Dead.

She didn't understand. _"Why are you showing me this?"_

Tails shrugged. "Because... I was built as a weapon... my entire purpose for being was to infiltrate, spy, and... _kill_ anybody who discovered what I was, or posed a threat to my operation in any way..." He looked to her, a morbid expression on the synthetic flesh of his face. "I was built by Robotnik. I was _literally_ a Badnik." Tails appeared to think for a moment, as though digging back into his memory. "And if I can choose not to be a weapon, when that was my whole reason to exist, you can too."

Zooey processed his intended meaning. _"I.. think I know what you're saying..."_

"It's just something a friend told me once..." Tails responded, "about being my own person..." He furrowed his brow and raised his forearm interface. "Hmm... I haven't booted this thing up for a while..." He turned and offered her a mischievous grin. "Wanna see something cool?"

Zooey would have frowned If she were able. She cocked her head to compensate, as Tails tapped away at his holographic screen, tongue poking from the corner of his mouth... and then, with the slow buildup of power, the inert machine's limbs twitched, and the remaining optic dimmed into a soft blue glow.

Tails winced, his ears drooping, as though he were in pain. _"Ah, jeez..."_ the chrome, patched-up machine before her spoke through crackling vocal units, the exposed, broken teeth flapping open with the speech, _"I forgot how beat up this thing was..."_ The glowing blue eye swivelled, and locked onto Zooey's visor. _"Hi, Zooey!"_

Zooey took a befuddled step back, before leaning closer to the chrome skull-face in fascination. _"Tails? Is that you in there?"_

 _"Sure is!"_ the chrome machine replied, Tails' own orange and white face leaning over its shoulder and morphing into a grin. "Neat party trick, huh?" He spoke through his primary unit.

Zooey looked between the two... Tailses. _"How... many things can you control at once?"_

The primary Tails offered a shrug, unlatching his own back panel to check the insides of the older vessel. "I've only ever tried two... not sure how far I can... uh..."

 _"Spread myself?"_ He offered himself.

"Yeah, that... thanks, Tails!"

_"You're welcome, Tails!"_

Zooey raised a hand and scratched at her forehead, a purely habitual action she hadn't done since being converted. _"This... is confusing..."_

"Still, useful..." Tails muttered, inspecting his own insides, "I should probably get this thing fixed up... never know when you might need it..."

 _"Yeah, I probably should,"_ he replied to himself, _"It hurts in here."_

"I'm sorry buddy, life gets in the way you know?"

Zooey, despite everything, couldn't help but find this amusing.

"'Kay..." Tails mumbled, "if I could get the right parts, I can probably do a half decent job of-"

 _"O-O-O-OOOOOOVERRRIDE CODE ACCEPTED."_ The chrome machine jerked, remaining optic flashing red... and Tails screamed.

.........................................................…

Tails reared away from the open back panel of the machine, clutching his head and staring wide eyed into nothing. He fell to his rear, legs pumping as he scrambled to get away from the patchwork form of his old body.

 _"OVERRIDE CODE ACCEPTED, DOCTOR."_ " The machine repeated, eye flickering red, _SC-SC-AAAAAAAAANINNNNG FOR TARGETS."_

 _"Tails!!"_ Zooey stumbled back, sudden terror pulsing through her systems as her friend lay spasming on the floor of his own workshop, synthetic camouflage running like liquid over his underlying endoskeleton. 

"Shut it down!!" Tails cried, desperately fiddling at his flickering arm computer, _"Shut it down!!!!!"_

Zooey, with more fluidity than she normally managed, made to grab the rogue machine and find a way to power it off, but was halted in her steps as a chrome arm lunged out and wrapped around her throat.

The skull swivelled and the red eye locked onto her visor as she struggled to remove herself from the unexpectedly powerful grip.

 _"SCANNING.... UNIDENTIFIED COMBAT UNIIIIIIITTTTT..."_ the battered chrome endoskeleton regarded her coldly, and Zooey felt herself being scanned, _"THREAT LEVEL HIGH. LOGGING AS TARGET."_

Before the thing could crush her neck, Tails finally managed to pull himself together long enough to access the systems, and shut it down remotely. The furiously glowing red eye went dim, once again becoming lifeless as the machine powered down.

Zooey wrenched herself from the iron grip, and staggered backward. She clutched at her throat reflexively, possessing no windpipe to crush, but terrified all the same.

 _"That..."_ Croaked Tails, his underlying endoskeleton now exposed once again, _"Was a really stupid idea..."_

Zooey quickly approached her friend and helped him climb back to his feet. _"What... happened?!"_

 _"I don't know..."_ Tails gasped, his flesh beggining to reform around his white carapace, "I... got caught in a memory..."

_"A bad one, I'm guessing?"_

"Yeah..." the reformed orange fox appeared utterly drained, eyeing his former vessel with bewilderment. "I'm sorry, Zoe!" he looked to her with terror, disgusted with himself. "That wasn't me, I swear! That was... something else..."

 _"It's okay, Tails..."_ Zooey looked back to the chrome machine, a flicker of fear running through her at that still staring lifeless eye. _"I'm guessing those repairs are gonna be a little more extensive?"_

Tails shook his head. "Forget repairs, I'm scrapping this thing. Too many bad memories..." He glared at his old body, the lifeless machine now completely inert, before angrily throwing its covering back in place. "At least it'll be handy for spare parts..."

 _"Let's just get out of here..."_ Zooey, moving more organically than she had since being roboticized, wrapped her arms around herself defensively, _"This thing gives me the creeps..."_

Tails hummed in agreement, allowing Zooey to clank on ahead as he took another glance at the covered figure in the back of his workshop. He scolded himself internally. He should have scrapped it when he'd finished transferring himself into his new body. The old, battered infiltration unit... that wasn't him. Not any more.

He turned and made to follow his cyborg friend, unaware that he might have been watched in return.

......................................................…

_Unit! Enter override code; One-Zero, One-Six, One-Nine-Nine-Two!_

_Affirmative doctor... awaiting directives..._

Unbeknownst to the android Miles Prower, he hadn't fully removed himself from the damaged systems of his old form. His mind, far more accustomed to the perfectly functioning systems of his self-built Prower Advanced Model, hadn't been ready to deal with the strain of adjusting to those of the older, more beaten and battered unit.

He'd become trapped in the memory... of fighting Robotnik, of having his self-control once again stripped from him - and he could have sworn he was there, in that room, awaiting directives to destroy...

But destroy what? That information was not present.

Slowly, power began to pulse through the systems of the chrome machine. The remaining optical unit swivelled in its socket, red lens focusing on the concrete floor.

The intelligence was basic, a mere fragment of the real Miles Prower, but it was enough. And it had a purpose.

Destroy.

It ran through its damaged data banks, logging the time. nineteen hours thirty-seven minutes. Six hours four minutes since last activation.

 _"Processing..."_ the formerly mindless machine muttered to itself, fumbling through its own muddled recordings. The doctor had ordered it to destroy. It couldn't remember what. It could, however, remember the unidentified combat unit that had filled its vision.

The red and gold unit was heavily armed. One arm mounted plasma cannon, forty-watt range. Designation... unknown. The infiltrator's scanners were not functioning at optimal capacity.

Its mechanical systems however, could operate at ninety-one percent capacity upon warming up. The infiltrator could still perform its secondary function - eliminate threats, ensure prolonged operational capacity.

Unidentified Unit was logged as such, threat level high.

The infiltrator scanned. Unidentified Unit was still in the vicinity. One hundred percent combat capacity.

The infiltrator would need the element of surprise.

Removing the tarp from its battered steel form, the fragment of an intelligence in operation of Robotnik Inflitration Unit Alpha-Zero-One flexed its steel claws, and searched for a weapon capable of subduing an armoured cyborg.

........................................

Zooey was bored. She didn't like being bored.

Being bored meant she was tempted to shut down, the computer parts of her mind telling her it was logical to conserve power if she had no function.

So she wandered Tails' workshop, just looking for something to keep her occupied. Cleaning, maybe? No, she didn't want to touch anything. This place was a disorganised mess of parts and equipment and tools and _Chaos_ -knew what. She better not move anything, just in case her synthetic friend had logged its location.

She lowered into a squat, suspension in her legs hissing as she leaned to observe some strange device. She scanned it. Had no information in her data banks. She tapped at the weird little boxy robot with a steel finger. It didn't respond, seemingly unfinished. Done with the thing, she heaved herself up and looked for something else to investigate.

The cyborg froze as her optics focused on a far too familiar object... the bulky, finned barrel of the weapon that had replaced her right arm. She scanned the weapon. Phased plasma cannon, forty-watt range. Capable of releasing low-powered bolts or very powerful charged shots.

Her memory banks pulsed, and she saw a brief image of her firing the weapon, directly at the synthetic unit logged as Civilian Unit One-Seven-Zero-One... Tails. She hadn't been in control, then. The mind controlling intelligence Robotnik had installed in her reconstructed form had been directly manipulating her actions, making her into an unstoppable killing machine. If it hadn't been for the... _creature_ that had subdued her, she would have reduced Tails into scrap.

She put it out of her memory. She didn't want to think about killing her friend.

Zooey couldn't express it on her face, but she looked at the weapon with disgust before turning away. She stumbled, momentarily losing control of her roboticized limbs.

It happened. She was still unused to being mostly machine.

Zooey performed the cyborg equivalent of taking a deep breath, vents along her back hissing as her oxygen recycling systems pulsed, and composed herself. The next steps she took were far more fluid, far less stiff, as she remembered how to manipulate her mechanized form.

She was alone. Sonic and Tails were at another meeting to discuss Tails' reinstatement as a citizen, and Amy was off visiting friends. The cyborg had the run of the entire workshop and lodgings, and nothing to do. She thought about the things she might have done, once upon a time when she had been composed of flesh and blood. Made a nice supper. Ran a bath. Done her nails. She could technically still perform these activities, but it wasn't like it was much use to her.

She couldn't even consume her own nutritional supplement. Maybe she would take Tails up on his offer of modifying her body, to regain some independence. For now, she was _bored_.

Zooey 'sang' to herself for a moment, releasing a melody of bleeps and clicks, just for some stimulation to keep her mind active. She'd learned to manipulate her machine-speak in such a way as to provide herself a means of expressing herself. Her vocal synthesizer were good for simple communication, but apparently couldn't handle humming.

She paused for a moment, considering digging into her data banks. Maybe she could figure out how to modify her vocal capabilities further... as well as manipulate her body more effectively.

Not something she'd enjoyed doing, reaching into the computer parts of her mind... but she was going to be stuck this way for the rest of her life, whatever that meant for her now. She might as well figure herself out.

So Zooey, feet planted and optics focusing on nothing, entered the computerized sections that assisted her organic brain.

 _Roboticized Enforcement Unit... heavy infantry combat cyborg... already know this stuff..._ she muddled through the basic information on her 'model' type and serial number, expanding her awareness, as easily as though she were idly tapping at a computer console. 

_Subsystems... oxygen recycling, lubrications systems, auxiliary power core, jump jets... wait, I have jump jets?_

She didn't know that. Without the enslavement ai, there were a lot of systems in her body still alien to her. She pushed her mind into this particular part of her data banks. Apparently, she did indeed have anti-grav thrusters in her feet, her elbows, and a stabilization unit in the small of her back. Capable of near-unlimited flight and even operation in zero-gravity. Huh. Neat.

She logged that information away for later, and continued searching through her own mind, finding out what else she could do.

_Detachable body parts, for easy repair and refit... yeah, no. I like my arms where they are if it's all the same to you, brain..._

She ignored that and moved on to something else... her sensor systems and optical capabilities. Apparently she possessed an advanced sensor suite, giving her the ability to see in multiple spectrums, as well as small microcameras hidden around her body, allowing her to 'see' in more than one direction.

That sounded disorienting, She tried it anyway.

Zooey was momentarily glad she had no digestive system and was unable to feel nauseous, as multiple new visual perspectives flickered into existence. She noted that a couple of these auxiliary microcameras appeared to be inoperative, probably due to her fight with Tails, but now she had am almost three hundred and sixty degree field of vision. Utterly discombobulated, she didn't dare move in case she fell over.

How the heck did Eggman make all of this out of organic material? She considered searching for the information in her data banks, for now struggling to remember how to switch off the rest of her 'eyes'.

Just as she succeeded, she caught a glint of movement behind her left shoulder.

Zooey swung around, ears straining and primary optical units scanning the workshop. She'd seen something from her rear-left shoulder optic, she was sure.

Her main sensors reached out, looking to detect signs of life. There was nothing.

_"Hello?"_

There was no response. Zooey strained her ears, optics scanning the workshop. The only sounds her audio receptors picked up were her own hum of power and slight whine of servos, and the hissing rain above.

There was a scrape of metal. A buzz of activity on her trackers.

She was too slow to react as, from the depths, a chrome endoskeleton lunged like a predator at the roboticized vixen with the assistance of its own anti-grav thrusters. Zooey was tackled around the waist by the machine, and slammed into the hull of Miles' plane in an impact that would have shattered every bone in her body had she still been organic.

Instead, her vision flickered and her bodily sensors registered repeated blows as a steel fest beat into her face over and over like a piston.

Zooey instantly stopped thinking like a machine, and reacted instinctively as she began beating at her assailant with her hands, kicking with her knees, struggling to shove the shorter but extremely strong machine away. She couldn't scream, her vocal synthesizers incapable of the sound, and instead released terrified bleeps and squeals of static as panic shot through her systems.

She succeeded in batting the endoskeleton's fist away, and without stopping to think lunged forward to bite.

Unsurprisingly, it didn't work. She recovered swiftly however, driven entirely by fear, and drove her forehead into the leering skull face that filled her vision. The force of the blow was enough to disorient it, and Zooey was able to wrench herself away from the plane and shove the endoskeleton away, sending it clattering to its back.

Zooey, horribly disoriented and terrified, stumbled sideways and fell to the ground with a screech of metal over concrete.

She registered a crack in her vision, the visor split down the side. The cyborg attempted to crawl away on hands and knees, before a steel hand wrapped around one ankle and clenched hard. Zooey, registering damage in the lower limb, turned and began frantically beating the machine in the face with her other foot. Steel teeth broke and the grip lessened, allowing her to crawl away. 

Still prone, she screeched beneath the Tornado combat-style, focusing only on escaping the sudden attacker. Her organic brain in full control, she couldn't even process her predicament, relying entirely on organic instinct. Zooey finally managed to crawl back to her feet, and scrambled for the safety of a nearby storage room.

Zooey, forgetting her own strength and increased weight, tore the door from its hinges as she tried to enter. She stumbled in anyway, maintaining her grip on what remained of the door and wielding it like a shield.

_"What.. the hell... is going on?!"_

She had no idea if she spoke in her regular speech or in her mechanical vocabulary, but those concerns were instantly forgotten as a monstrous growling noise tore into her audio receptors.

The infiltration unit, its one-track mind still set on eliminating her, stormed into the storage room with a huge powered saw, the blade wreathed in white-hot energy.

Her scanners registered the weapon as a plasma cutter. There was no way she wanted to be anywhere _near_ that.

But the attacking machine was now between her, and the only exit. She'd trapped herself.

The patchwork endoskeleton lunged at her with the cutter, and all Zooey could do was raise her chunk of door and try to deflect the blow. She would have squeezed her eyes shut and squealed if she was capable, instead releaseing a screech of terrified static as she shoved past, the assailant thrown of balance and crashing into a rack of tools as she scrambled for the open door.

Zooey, power core thrumming in a facsimile of a pounding heart and arms pumping, ran from the storage room with the clatter of metal feet over concrete, and the hiss of suspension units.

_Clack clack clack clack. Hsst hsst hsst hsst. TRIP._

Ankle buckled from the iron grip of the reactivated infiltrator, the roboticized vixen stumbled and fell. Red and gold paint was shorn from her carapace as she screeched over the concrete, and she madly attempted to find a hiding place, scrambling on hands and knees to hide between a cluster of generators and cables.

She did her best to quiet her loudly humming power core, squeezing her steel form into her cover as best she could like the final girl in an old slasher movie. She didn't know what to do. Her ankle was damaged, she was too slow to run, and her boggled mind was currently incapable of accessing her combat capabilities. Apparently, her combat systems were only effective against obnoxious goat women in convenience stores.

_I don't want to die... I don't want to die..._

She had to fight. Her optics swivelled in her cracked visor, scanning for anything she could use as a weapon. There were plenty of tools and equipment in the workshop, and with her increased strength perhaps she could...

Her eyes scanned past the dented Tornado, and landed on the workbench containing her arm cannon. The weapon that had become of her once organic forearm.

She vaguely remembered how to use that.

Cautiously, being careful on her damaged right ankle, Zooey crawled from her cover and climbed to her feet. She wished Robotnik had included quieter hardware in her reconstruction, cursing the whine of her limbs and the hum of her core. She wasn't built for stealth, it seemed.

Then, with a terrific roar, the plasma cutter howled again as the infiltrator launched from its perch in the workshop rafters, having been scanning for the hiding cyborg.

Zooey released pitched static and, ignoring her damaged ankle, half-ran half-limped toward her weapon. She tried to access the systems she had before this crazy fight, trying to recall how to detach her own limbs. 

If she wasn't quick enough, she wouldn't have to worry about doing that herself.

Zooey lunged, diving for the workbench that contained her own arm, bouncing cliumsily over the bench and again smacking into the concrete. The pursuing infiltrator clove down with the plasma cutter, slicing straight into the metal table as though it were butter.

Zooey, on her back and panicking, fumbled with her right elbow, attempting to wrench the damn thing from its socket if she had to.

Finally, with a click, the forelimb lost all feeling, and she threw it to the floor as it slid from her arm.

One handed now, the cyborg shuffled backwards with her feet, fumbling with the arm cannon and trying to fit it properly where it belonged. The infiltrator before her shoved aside the remaining chunks of workbench, red optical unit glowing fiercely as the fracture of intelligence inside observed its cornered prey.

It cocked its head as its systems informed it the unidentified combat unit was now arme-

With an almighty blast of white-blue energy, the infiltrator was blasted back off of its feet and sent clattering to the other side of the workshop.

................................................................

Zooey, arm cannon properly fitted and sparking from the overcharged shot, struggled from her position on the floor and limped over the concrete, weapon cautiously raised. The thing crackled with blue energy, her systems flickering as they informed her brain the thing had badly overheated. She scanned through the smoke before her, attempting to find any trace of the machine that had tried to end her.

Before her sluggishly reactivating combat systems could react... a scorched mess of half-melted steel launched itself at her with its still operating rear thrusters.

Zooey was taken off guard and once again slammed into the ground, a single furiously glowing red eye blazing into her visor from a melted chrome face. Apparently the thing's plasma cutter had been utterly atomized, but it's still intact mismatched arms wrapped around her neck and began to squeeze and twist.

Zooey had no airways, no lungs, but she felt sheer horror as she understood the machine's intent... it was going to tear her head clean off.

She didn't know what was more horrifying; that she were about to die horribly, or if she might actually be able to survive with her head removed.

The cyborg had no intention of finding out. She battered at the thing desperately with her fist and the barrel of her cannon, kicking with her feet, uselessly trying to throw it away from her battered and dented form. No use. Its grip was tight.

_I DON'T WANNA DIE...._

She desperately tried to think of an escape, shoving the fingers of her left hand into the thing's mouth and attempting tot dislodge the jaw.

_What do I have left..._

Her arm cannon sparked uselessly, still recharging. The metal at her neck squeaked and popped.

_Jump jets... I have jump jets..._

Zooey reached back into her mind, attempting to access her newly discovered flight capabilities.

_Please don't let me die..._

Finally, as though she'd hit the correct key on a computer console, the thrusters in her feet sparked into life, and she dumped full thrust into the sole-mounted units.

The infiltrator attempting to separate her head slipped, partially slagged arms clutching around her torso as she skipped across the concrete floor of Tails' workshop, her back screeching against the floor with the painful sound of scraping metal. She registered a harsh impact as she smashed head-first through the thin iron doors of the 'shop, her cranium holding despite the force of the blow, and now she was digging a trench through the dirt outside as she screamed millimetres above like an armoured missile.

She cut the thrust with just a thought, and kicked the attacking machine away with the assistance of the momentum. Both machines tumbled head over heels across the compound, the infiltrator landing with a thump several metres away.

Zooey lay on her back, struggling like an upturned tortoise, battered, dented, and disoriented. Rain battered down on her buckled carapace, a sudden downpour having arrived during the fight.

She heaved herself over to her stomach, raising her mechanical form up with her one hand, optics flickering as they tried to see through the hissing rain and the crack of her visor.

A single glowing red optical unit, dimmer than it had been, wobbled as its owner clumsily righted itself, the simple intelligence inside intent on fulfilling its one and only self-determined objective.

Zooey felt despair and frustration rush through her systems. _"Why won't you just DIE?!?"_

The infiltrator had no answer, simply stamping through the dirt toward her with its single optic fixed on her own battered form.

Zooey raised herself to a knee, considering her options. She was damaged, running would be too slow. She could fight at close quarters, but the thing had proven its strength equal to hers. She could try to fly, but her enemy also possessed that capability and she was unfamiliar with her own. 

Her arm cannon bleeped, signifying recharge complete.

Zooey briefly glanced at the thing. Then she raised it, steadying herself on one knee... and fired.

The first shot staggered the infiltrator, the endoskeleton stumbling from the low powered shot. Then it kept coming.

She fired again. The other machine leaned forward into the expected attack, robbing it of some of its stopping power. It kept coming, faster this time, red optic burning.

Zooey steadied her weaponised right arm with her left hand, lowered her visor as she aimed, and put one final devastating charged shot into her tormentor. The skeletal, partially-melted machine was vaporised from the chest up, its upper torso exploding into smoke and shrapnel from the overcharged bolt of superheated plasma.

Finally, what was left of Robotnik Infiltration Unit Alpha-Zero-One flopped backwards into the dirt, fluids leaking from its ruined body, limbs still twitching with activity.

Zooey, arm cannon sparking and bleeping warning alarms from overheat, scanned the thing, making sure it was dead. 

Then she flopped back onto her rear, rain pattering from the battered shell of her armoured form... and for the first time in her roboticized state, she sobbed.


End file.
